Minato Namikaze : Konoha's Golden Haired Shinobi
by djrhodes488
Summary: Tells the story of Minato Namikaze, famed as Konoha's Yellow Flash and one of the finest shinobi Konoha has ever produced. Not much is known about Minato except for his legacy and the famed Nine Tailed Attack. But what happened when he was a shinobi. Follow Minato as he goes through his journey from academy student to one of Konoha's greatest Hokage. MinatoxKushina obviously:P
1. Chapter 1 : A Day at the Academy

******A/N : Alright! I'm excited about this new story! I just finished planning out the first 30 chapters...yes 30 :P This will be epic in length. Now I'm starting to write it. This is the story of how Minato came to be. From Academy days to his legendary status, follow Minato as he goes through his journey...**

**Introduction Arc - Chapter 1 : A Day at the** **Academy**

The breezing wind flowed through the wooded forest swaying the trees and flittering the leaves. In an unofficial circular area lay several bulls eye targets attached to the trunks with kunai knives almost perfectly directed dead in the center. Littered around the area are several targets on the ground, on tree trunks, tree branches, rocks, almost anything that you stick them on to, each one with several kunai impossibly all converging in the middle. Almost all of them dead on...key word, 'almost'.

The blond haired young boy sat with his hands interlocked and feet crossed in a meditative position with a leaf seemingly defying gravity as it attached perfectly to the middle of his forehead. The young boy controlling his breathing as he carefully and articulately placed a small amount of chakra on his forehead, outlining the leaf. A simple chakra control exercise that you learn in the academy whose secret purpose was to teach concentration. And it worked. For an academy student to keep a leaf, with almost no weight, balanced on your forehead without actually moving your head took a lot of concentration to focus the right proportion of chakra on that small space.

After hours upon hours of kunai training his body was near worn out. His physical energy was almost depleted but only inexperienced ninja would stop there. After heightening his physical energy he decided to focus on his spiritual energy, or chakra.. From the many studies at the academy the most important lesson was the one on training your body and chakra. Most ninja focus solely on the physical aspect when training but forgo training their chakra. That's something Minato wouldn't forget. If his dream was to be hokage he had to be the best he could be, so training was essential. Not to mention...fun!

"Minato!" yelled that oh so familiar feminine voice, "Time to eat, honey!"

Minato's closed eyes perked open as he stroked his growling stomach. All this training made him forget he hadn't eaten. He stumbled up from his meditative position as his body seemed to ache from every single muscle he had. He grimaced but forced his body to move at the smell of his favorite food...mom's homemade cooking! He grabbed his nearby ninja pouch as he started to trudge forward. He turned his head back and focused on the few kunai that didn't hit their targets as he shook his head. He'll practice again when he gets back.

**-Minato Namikaze-**

His house was pretty nice compared to other houses in Konoha, mostly because his mom was somewhat of a clean-freak. They were, just like most of the families in the village, of the middle class. Not too rich and not poor, just enough to enjoy the simple life. At the table his father sat waiting for his meal as he smiled at his son.

"Oi, Minato!" He said excitedly with a huge grin, "How was training, son?"

Minato smiled back as he responded, "It was great, dad!" He then took his seat as his mother came with both of their bowls. The beautiful aroma was enough to make any human lose their soul. Minato struggled to keep the drool from slipping out of his slack jawed mouth.

A golden silence filled the room as the only noise one could hear were the many clatters of clashing metal and slurping sounds from the breath taking noodles. Minato's mom, Emi Namikaze, couldn't help but smile at the sight. Minato and her dear husband, Nobaki, absolutely loved her homemade cooking and wouldn't take any other. That completely crossed off eating out. She can't remember the last time they went to an actual restaurant outside of birthdays and family gatherings. Even then, she basically had to force them to go. It just meant more work for her. It was all worth it, however, seeing them utterly devour the food she spent slaving over.

Minato burped as he rubbed his temporarily bulging stomach and smiled from having tasting heaven itself. He looked over at his dad who had his eyes in the clouds as he finished his bite of heaven also. They sat like that for awhile until his father finally decided to break the silence.

"So Minato, show me what you learned. Show me a new jutsu!" he said leaning forward and with a huge grin on his face. He looked reminiscent of a five year old experiencing their first true Christmas, desperately waiting to open their first gift.

Feeling his chakra reserves start to replenish after devouring some delicious food, he decided to concede and show him the Bushin Technique. It was a pretty high-level academy jutsu. Having to send chakra throughout your whole body and replicate that on a specific location close to you took a great deal of chakra control to master. Minato, however, mastered it a week after he learned it. He stood up from his chair and used several hand signs, molding his chakra as he carefully kept a constant flow outlining his body. He then chose a spot to the right of him as he began to replicate the flow of chakra on the external source. It seemed to be successful as he saw the widened eyes and slacked jaw of his father. Minato smiled as he released the technique which dissipated the clone.

"W-Wow!" Minato's father was at a sudden loss for words. He wasn't too hard to impress, however. He could've showed him any measly jutsu and he would have had the same reaction. His father was just happy his son was pursuing the career of a ninja. He told stories of when he was a kid and applied for the academy, but never really passed. He just never had any talent for ninjutsu. So seeing his son at the top of his class and doing what he failed to do when he was a kid was the greatest accomplishment.

"You know," continued Nobaki with a proud smile, "Your grandfather was a great ninja, too. He was a Chuunin for about 15 years. Ninjutsu runs in your blood, son." He smiled as he placed his hand on his son's head and scuffled his hair.

"I will be a great hokage, soon, just you wait!" responded Minato. He seemed to succeed in making his dad even more proud by his ever increasing grin.

"That's right!" Nobaki exclaimed.

"Alright Minato," his mom said with a smile. She bent down and kissed his cheek as she hugged him from the back, handing him a lunch box, "You can't be late for the academy."

Minato just remembered. His afternoon classes were starting soon, "Right! See you later!" he called back as he waved goodbye to his parents with a smile.

**-Minato Namikaze-**

Going down the road that led to the academy building he smiled and waved to the neighbors, store clerks, and others who knew him as they muttered something to the effect of 'What a nice kid'. He got that a lot. Deciding not to run seeing how his body still ached and he was almost depleted of chakra he kept his pace to a somewhat speedy walk. At this pace he would at least get there five minutes early. He would usually strive to be faster than that, but this would do.

As he walked he stopped by a house that was very similar to his and proceeded to knock on the door. Hearing several footsteps and other random noises, the door opened as he met his gaze at the young boy around his height.

Minato squinted his eyes and scratched the back of his head as he smiled. "Hey Nawaki-kun," he greeted.

Nawaki sighed, "Oi, what do you want Minato?"

"U-uhm is Tsunade-sama here?" he asked.

Nawaki sighed again, "Yes, she's inside." He then brushed past him as he started toward the direction towards the academy.

Minato's eyes widened as he wondered if it was okay to just walk in or not, "Uhm, Tsunade-sama?" he decided to call.

"Come in Minato-chan!" he heard from up the stairs. He walked in with a smile and waited at the bottom of the steps as he saw the blond woman walk down the stairs with a polite smile. "Do you need something?"

"Yes! Can you restore my chakra, please?"

"Training again huh?" she asked. Minato nodded his head. She then proceeded to bend down and placed her hands gently on his back as she flowed a constant stream of green, glowing chakra into his Chakra Circulatory System.

Minato suddenly felt rejuvenated in all aspects. His body stopped aching, his chakra was restored, and he most of all felt like a whole new person. It's like the feeling you would get after taking a long, hot shower after a hard day at work. It was the best feeling ever. Coming to Tsunade-sama's house every day after training was the best decision he's ever made. Getting all the hours you need to train and not feeling the usual remorse on your body and chakra was like a ninja's heaven. Not to mention that this particular person was renowned around the world as being one of the best medic-nin. She made Konoha proud.

"Alright, thanks Tsunade-sama!" Minato said. After hugging and saying goodbye to the 20 year old legendary ninja, he left the house and started to make his way towards the academy.

**-Minato Namikaze-**

After having his body renewed and his chakra regenerated, he decided to quicken his pace. He applied a steady amount of chakra to his feet as he started to dash down the road. He decided not to use too much chakra as that would diminish Tsunade-sama's efforts. He kept his pace slightly faster than a top-notch civilian's run, which wasn't much compared to a ninja. To make getting to his destination a little faster he decided to take a short cut through the woods.

In the woods he dashed from tree to tree landing on each branch perfectly and using the exact amount of chakra necessary to get to the next one. At this point, any academy student could do it without a second thought. It was like riding a bike, when you first attempt it, it's hard but once you get used to it, it becomes as natural as walking.

As he was going through the trees, Minato just barely managed to dodge the in-coming kunai knives flying towards his face. He then landed on the ground as he mentally punched himself for letting his thoughts drift around and not being prepared. That was academy 101. Always. Be. Prepared!

The attacker wasn't around but Minato got a good idea of who it was. The way the kunai traveled was definitely at academy level and the only person who takes this short cut, other than him, was none other than Nawaki Senju. A blur from the trees dashed out and landed in front of Minato.

Minato looked at the brown haired young boy with a big, goofy grin on his face and pink flush around his cheeks. Nawaki was pointing at Minato in a challenging manner.

"You dodged it," Nawaki smiled with a mocking tone, "As expected from our class's number one student."

"Is there something you want?" asked Minato, confused and innocently.

"This is my chance!" Nawaki exclaimed, "I will defeat you and solidify myself as the best in the class!"

Minato instantly smiled. So it was a sparring match. He hadn't had one of those in awhile. Minato took to a defensive as his opponent seemingly prepared to charge. Minato then proceeded to study his opponent. He was full of openings. There was not one position that he couldn't exploit. His opponent was known for just charging in head on, so first contact would most likely be a Taijutsu fight. Minato decided that he could win this match without using much chakra. Not because he underestimated his opponent but he really didn't want to run himself dry before class started.

Nawaki charged forward as expected, but he unexpectantly pulled out a smoke bomb from his ninja pouch and threw it on the ground near Minato. A purplish smoke rose around the shocked blond as he covered his mouth from a small cough. He decided that staying in the smoke wasn't a very good position to be in so he applied a very small amount of chakra to his feet as he lifted himself out only to be met by a grinning Nawaki who was across from him in the air. Nawaki had several shuriken in his hand as he threw them at Minato. They all hit their target as blood came out of the surprised Minato as Nawaki's widened eyes alluding to that fact that even he was surprised it ended so quickly. His brief happiness faded, however, when the body puffed into smoke as a simple tree log with several shuriken in it landed in its wake. Nawaki grunted at being tricked by the Substitution Jutsu.

Nawaki turned around and saw a grinning Minato with squinted eyes, scratching the back of his head. Nawaki grunted, "Are you mocking me!" he yelled.

"N-no, I'm…" Minato jumped out of the way of several on-coming kunai knives. He heard a familiar sizzling sound as he turned to see one of the kunai with an exploding tag attached about to detonate. Minato applied a little more chakra to his feet this time as he managed to dodge the explosion. Minato looked back at the debris as the shockwave sent him forward. Nawaki's gotten better. He looked ahead of him with a surprised look as he saw a grinning Nawaki with a kunai in hand right in his face. Minato looked almost disappointed, knowing that this fun little sparring match was over.

"Haha, I win!" bragged Nawaki. He then struck forward with his kunai as Minato swayed to the left, dodging it. Minato then grabbed Nawaki's arm, kicked him in the stomach, successfully knocking the wind out of him as he then proceeded to throw him to the ground. The fight was over just as Minato predicted.

Minato walked over to the gasping Nawaki as his opponent struggled for breath from the solid blow to the stomach. "You should've struck from a distance. It would've had a better chance at hitting," Minato said trying to help. He then walked over and smiled as he lifted his hand out to help his opponent up.

Nawaki smacked it away as he stood up, obviously angered. "Who asked you?" he yelled as he marched off in a childish pout.

The 10 year old prodigy scratched the back of his head, confused. He was only trying to help. Was it something he said?

**-Minato Namikaze-**

The class room was empty with him being the first one here as he usually was. This was his homeroom where the teacher would do attendance and proceeded to send the kids off to their classes. This is where his classmates began and ended their day. Minato walked over to his desk as he pulled out a book labeled 'Konoha's History'. Reading was his favorite past time after all. Flipping open the book he went straight to his favorite section. The history of one of Konoha's greatest kage's…Tobirama Senju. What interested him about Tobirama-sama was his love for the village and his willingness to do whatever he could to protect it, even if it meant risking his own life, which he eventually did. The term was coined by the Sandaime Hokage as the 'Will of Fire'. The first hokage had it also, but he wasn't around much for the establishment of the village and not much is known about his history besides eyewitness accounts, but those weren't very reliable. From what Minato could tell from Tobirama, Hashirama was a very powerful shinobi and very deserving of the title of first Hokage.

Minato flipped through a couple more pages as it started to explain his abilities and usage of jutsu. This was the most interesting aspect of the Nidaime. He was able to mold his chakra with such skill that he could perform A-rank water-style techniques with a single hand sign and also create water out of thin air without a specific source. This among other reasons is why he is revered as the greatest known Water Release manipulator in the world.

Another fascinating thing about the Nidaime that interested the blond was his use of Space-Time Ninjutsu. This was the most interesting type of jutsu and the hardest to master. It's a type of ninjutsu that allows you to manipulate time and space itself. What made the Nidaime so revered in that category was his ability to transport himself, as long with others, from one area to another in an instant. How he did it is currently unknown except for little rumors here or there. Minato suddenly thought of the aspects of attaining a jutsu like that. Being able to teleport to wherever you want was definitely a perk.

"Oi, Minato, Whatcha readin'?" Minato looked up at the chubby boy with streaks of red face paint on his cheeks and short red hair. He had a bag of chips in his hands that he wasn't afraid to show off.

"He's reading some boring history book, Choza," said another boy around Minato's height. He had short black hair wrapped in a ponytail.

"Jeez, you need to get your head out of the books and live a little," said another boy with blond hair and green eyes. Minato chuckled embarrassingly as he scratched the back of his head. "Anyways," Inoichi continued, "We were wondering if you like to skip class with us today. You know if you weren't busy doing your boring studies."

Minato looked up in confusion. Skip class? "Isn't that against the rules?" Minato asked innocently.

"You're wasting your time Inoichi, he's not gonna skip class. He's too much of a goody-two-shoe for that," responded Shikaku.

"Ah, whatever," Inoichi said as he put his hands on the back of his head and walked away. Shikaku did the same.

"See ya, Minato!" Choza responded as he waved and followed his group of friends. Minato smiled as he waved back.

Minato sat back down in his desk as he went back to his book and seemed to ponder something. Did they allow you to miss class if you wanted to in this school?

The rest of the short homeroom class period went on as normal. The teacher, Nanoe-sensei, arrived. She was a youthful women with sharp glasses and long, black hair normally kept pinned back. She wore the standard Chuunin ninja attire and wore her ninja head band with Konoha's leaf symbol imprinted on it tied around her right arm. She then took attendance, noting that 27 of the usual 35 students were present, all the while yelling at the class clown, Iraki Umino. He was the usual class trouble maker. Pulling pranks on unsuspecting victims, harassing his fellow students, and most of all angering their Chuunin instructor. Nanoe-sensei was a very pretty woman, but when she took of her glasses with that angry glare, it was enough to send the whole class to their knees begging for forgiveness.

After class and a few minutes of socializing the bell rang, signifying to everyone to proceed to their next class.

**-Minato Namikaze-**

Minato's first class was Exploring Ninja Tools and Applications. This covered everything from how to use certain weapons to even creating your own. It was a pretty interesting class in Minato's opinion. They got a surprise visit a week ago from Konoha's famed weapon inventor, Io. He was a fairly short man in his mid 30's with short black hair. He talked about all the mechanics of weapon inventing and the importance of ninja tools in missions. It was an interesting time.

The instructor for this class was Kyoraku-sensei. He was fairly tall with long black hair tied in a ponytail and gray eyes with thin facial hair around his mouth and on his cheeks. He was a pretty laid back teacher who unlike most teachers allowed the students the freedom to talk amongst themselves and only interrupted when he needed to give an important lecture. He was pretty much everyone's favorite teacher.

Minato sat down in his desk next to his usual partner when they did experiments, Yachiro Uchiha. Minato nodded to him only to see that he wasn't paying attention. He was staring off at something, seemingly loss at thought.

"What are you looking at?" asked Minato.

Yachiro sighed dreamily, "Only the most beautiful girl in the whole school." Minato glanced over to where he was looking at to see a small young girl around their age with short black hair and an orange band hiding her bangs.

"Who is that?" asked Minato not recognizing her.

"That's Mikoto Uchiha," he responded, "She lives across the street from me." Minato looked surprised as he suddenly grunted in frustration, "Ugh, if only I could get her attention!"

Class started as the Kyoraku-sensei began to explain today's lesson which was on exploding tags. He first started by talking about the many uses of exploding tags and how useful they were with kunai, just the basic stuff. Most of the people in the class knew how to use exploding tags already, so it wasn't all that new. He then began to explain are assignment for today. Today they were going to the labs for an experiment. They were to attempt at creating their very own exploding tag. They were supplied with all the necessary materials like seal paper, chakra compatible ink, and a glass bowl to contain the explosion. That's if they were to succeed.

Yashiro had decided to team up with Minato like always as they arrived at their table in one of the schools labs. The table had all the supplies laid out nice and orderly and ready for use. Minato studied the supplies trying to work out how to do this. Yashiro, however, seemed to be more interested in making flirty faces at Mikoto from across the room, which she shrugged off making him even angrier.

Kyoraku-sensei had signaled for the class to start as Minato immediately got to work. Yashiro turned around and seemed to have regained his exposure as he focused his attention on the experiment.

"Oi, Minato," he started, "How are we going to do this? Lazy-sensei over there didn't exactly teach any of us this stuff."

"Hmm," Minato pondered. What Yashiro said was true. They never went over seals in detail yet in the academy so this was all new for most people here. Minato had learned a bit about seals here and there from books but not much. The challenge in this experiment was to be able to create an explosion by concealing chakra into a seal and upon release it explodes. But to be able to cause an explosion with mere chakra was definitely no easy task. Yashiro watched on as Minato proceeded to take one of the seal papers. He placed it on the desk as he then grabbed the chakra compatible ink and brought it closer to him.

"Minato?" Yashiro asked, confused, "You know how to do this stuff?"

"No, not really," he responded with his attention still fixated on the paper, "I'll figure it out though."

A half an hour went by as Yashiro watched as Minato tried multiple combinations and routes in order to try to configure a seal that would be able to conjure up an explosion upon chakra emission. He knew from his tree-climbing exercises that putting too much chakra into something can cause a more destructive effect and to control the chakra emission right you would need to use the right amount. In his training to learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu, the first time he used it, it had exploded in his face.

Minato tapped his chin as we pondered the situation. Usually when performing a technique you needed to balance the right amount of chakra into it in order for it to work properly. That was the hardest part in learning a new technique. Putting too little chakra into something will cause the technique to be ineffective, however putting too much chakra can cause it to explode in your face.

Explode!

A light bulb went on in Minato's head as his eyes lit up. Yashiro picked up on this as he smiled excitedly. "Did you figure it out!" he almost yelled. He was excited to show Mikoto how great they were.

"I think so," Minato said. He stared at the seal that he drew onto the paper with a kanji for 'explode' in the middle of it. The seal seemed to work fine. It allowed for channeling chakra into it and storing a certain amount also. Minato placed his two fingers on the middle of the seal as Yashiro crossed his fingers while he watched on anxiously.

'Hopefully this works,' Minato thought.

He then began to apply chakra to the seal. This time he put he put all he had into. He applied enough chakra to fill the limits of the seal and even tried to apply more. As he focused on his chakra input he almost didn't notice the small audience that had gathered at their table. They seemingly gave up on trying as they watched amazed at Minato's work. Even the teacher was dumbfounded.

Minato finished his chakra input as Yashiro placed the glass container over the tag. Minato formed his hands into the snake seal as he mentally counted to three. You could almost hear a gulp as the whole class watched anxiously to see if Minato would be able to pull this off. Minato began to mold his chakra as he activated the bit infused into the seal. Then suddenly…

Bam!

The glass container contained most of the blast but the shockwave that preceded it, sent it flying across the room. All the girls in the class held their skirts as the wind threatened to let every guy in the class have a sneak peak. Minato shielded his eyes from the smoke as he smiled.

This project was a success!

Everyone, including the teacher, gawked at the successful experiment. As the surprise seemed to die down the teacher started a slow clap. The class started to catch on as the fell into rhythm as the slow, monotonous clap began to erupt and formed into an all out welcoming praise. Minato couldn't help but smile and be proud of himself. He glanced over and saw Yashiro, with all his pride, taking this all in and enjoying the praise as he smirked in a bragging way. Minato chuckled to himself at that. Today was definitely a good day!

* * *

**A/N : Well that's the first chapter everyone, hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review it inspires me to make more ;D **

**I kinda rushed the ending but oh well, tell me if you like the story or if there's anything I can change/improve on, that would be great, peace!**


	2. Chapter 2 : Enter the Uzumaki's

******A/N : I've just decided something. This story is going to be EPIC in length. I'm talking maybe 100 chapters. Now hold on a minute! Think about it. This is like a manga in of itself except a story version of Minato. Now the Naruto manga has about 600 chapters and so does One Piece and Bleach. So compared to those, this isn't AS long(but it's still long :P) There's just a lot I want to cover in this story about Minato's life.**

**Now the first 50 or so, chapters are going to be in Part 1. Now part 1 is when he's around 10-12 years old. There still will be action, don't worry. I've got fights set up for Sakumo Hatake, Jiraiya, Orochimaru(good version...kinda), Hiruzen Sarutobi(not old, so this should be epic xD), and many others. Not to mention Minato's fights are going to be pretty interesting as well :D. The final arc in Part 1 will be when they enter the Second Shinobi World War. There will be deaths!(unlike how naruto is, how only random ninja #37695 dies that no one cares about) They will be important characters that die or at least semi-important. But it will stick with canon. i wont kill of someone who wasn't even suppose to die. I'm sticking to canon. So yeah...**

**Part 2 of the story which will be like 20-30 or so chapters will be after a time skip. This will be like the shippuden of naruto except with Minato. It will be after 3 years and Minato would be WAY stronger. This is the time where he's a jonin and carry's out missions and starts to get famed across the world.**

**The last part, Part 3. Will be his hokage days. When he starts to train Kakashi and them and enters the Third Shinobi World War and has his many clashes with A. This will be EPIC! This will show the full power of Konoha's Yellow Flash and this will also be the climax of the KushinaxMinato relationship, where they get married and Kushina get's pregnant. And then the end will be the legendary Nine Tails attack.**

**Now I know this sounds long, but think of all the fanfics out there that are great stories and you just hated for it to end(or don't get finished at all) But this one will last :D**

**So yeah, tell me how you think of my idea. :D(I guarntee this will be one of the longest fanfics of this sight, lol) Now on to the story...**

* * *

**Introduction Arc - Chapter 2 : The Red Hot-Blooded Habanero**

The caravan rattled and shook as it jutted across the long, rugged roads. Kushina sighed for the umpteenth time as she gazed out at the huge expanse of trees at sides of them. They have been traveling for about three days with very few stops and absolutely no entertainment to keep them busy. Kushina stared out of the window with her head propped up on her arm with a furrowed brow. She just didn't understand why they had to move. Supposedly they were avoiding 'dangers to the clan' since their ancestors were near wiped out a while back, but they've never been attacked in all of her 10 years of living so why were they moving now?

"Is something wrong, Kushina?" Kushina whipped her head around in a serious frown, ready to unleash a torrent of words at whoever DARED to ask her what's 'wrong.'

When she turned around she hesitated for a moment as the source seemed to come from her sweet, loving mom before she spoke, "Yes there's something wrong! Why do we have to move! What's wrong with our old place?"

Her mother, Akane, seemed to flinch a little at the raised, anger-filled voice as Kushina gulped. Was that too much? Akane forced in a smile anyways, "You know why Kushina. It's dangerous there."

Kushina flinched at this. "Dangerous! There's nothing dangerous about it! We've never been attacked before so why now?"

Akane somehow managed to keep a smile on her face, "That doesn't mean danger won't ensue. The Uzumaki clan was famed in Uzushiogakure, we can't stay there."

"But all my friends are there," Kushina responded, "So why do we have to mov…"

"The other divisions moved out shortly after we did," her father interrupted. Kushina hadn't meant to get her father, Gemmei, into this. She almost forgot that they shared the same caravan space. With his stern discipline and love for the clan, she was sure he would have her head for this. On the other hand this was just something she couldn't just shut up about; having to leave her friends and most of her family was absolutely unacceptable.

"But that's not fair! Why can't we go with the other divisions? I don't even know anyone here!"

"Everyone was systematically placed in a division and sent off to which most benefited the clan," Gemmei said. Kushina gulped. The way he spoke was calm but with little to no emotion and a hint of coldness that seemed to say 'end of conversation'. Kushina sighed as she went back to her window. This was just not fair!

**-Minato Namikaze-**

A few hours later the caravan jutted and stopped. Kushina wiped the drool from her mouth as she drowsily stretched out and yawned. Were they here or was this another rest stop? She decided to look out her window again. Again she saw huge trees, but something else perked her eye. To the left of her was a wall with a symbol that looked very similar to the Uzushiogakure one. She then looked back into her compartment of the caravan as she noticed she was the only one inside. Her brows rose as she desperately looked out the window on the other side. Were they finally here? She didn't like the aspect of moving, but the thought of finally being out of this stupid caravan was exciting enough.

As she looked out the window she saw another group of trees and the strange wall. She also saw her two little siblings, Junko and Kahori, both 5, out there playing with their ball. Kushina decided to step out for a bit to see what was going on. Sure enough she saw most of her division outside talking and passing by time as her father spoke with two ninja at the gate. Looks like they were here.

Kushina sighed as she sat down on the warm grass at the edge of their cart and watched her siblings play. Junko took note of this and ran towards Kushina as Kahori followed. "O-nee-chan!" yelled Junko as drool developed at the side of his mouth. Kahori followed as she smiled the same smile that won her adorations from the clan for years to come.

"What is it?" Kushina asked coldly.

"Aren't you excited!" Kahori asked ecstatically.

"About what?" Kushina spit out.

"We're moving! It's going to be so aweessommee," added Junko as he danced around holding his soccer ball close to his chest.

Kushina twirled around with her arms folded in a pout as she frowned. "Kushina's a grumpy pants," said Junko once he finally stopped his little dance and noticed her pout.

Junko and Kahori both then looked at each other with a devious grin as they started to chuckle. Kushina then looked up wondering what these two little devils were planning. They then opened their mouths as they took in one humongous breath. Kushina sighed as she squinted her eyes and plugged her ears ready for the onslaught.

"KUSHINA'S A GRUMPY PANTS! KUSHINA'S A GRUMPY PANTS! KUSHINA'S A GRUMPY PANTS!" they sang over and over again. They were loud enough to have the whole clan division looking over at the spectacle. They wouldn't stop as they just kept chanting and dancing around Kushina. Kushina desperately tried to plug her ears as tried to drown out the sound but with no avail. The chanting kept going and going but they just wouldn't quit. As soon as she thought they would lose their voice and tire, they would get louder and even more annoying. Finally Kushina had enough.

"STOP!" she yelled as she formed several hand signs while she pulled out two seal tags. She then applied chakra to the seal, activating it, and placed it on both their mouths. They suddenly stopped as they struggled to tear off the seal that were firmly placed. This seal was one of the most popular seals amongst teachers and disciplinary advisors to silence children. It's a seal that blocks access from the larynx to the vocal cords making it impossible to make sound until the seal was released. Being a genin from her clan she had already learned it in the four horrific years she spent at the academy and to say the least, dealing with these kids, she found it quite useful.

She watched on with a grin on her face as she saw how Junko and Kahori struggled to take off the troubling seal as they glared at Kushina with beams as to say 'Payback is eminent.' She knew she would have trouble later on, but the silence at the moment was golden and for once after this whole three day trip she could gladly say that she was actually happy.

**-Minato Namikaze-**

"What! Going back to the academy!" Kushina couldn't believe the news. She had to actually go back to that stupid school system. She just spent four years there! She can't go again! They had finally settled into their new compound as her family unpacked in their new house. Junko and Kahori were ecstatic that they were having their own rooms and Kushina was just happy to be out of that stupid caravan, but now this! It just wasn't fair!

"Only for the rest of the year, sweetie," responded the mom, trying everything in her power to not smack some since into this disrespectful young girl.

"Yeah, but that's six months! I can't stay for six months! Datebane!" she almost screamed now.

Akane sighed as she shook her head. "You'll live, Kushina," she said simply. She then proceeded to walk towards her daughter with an outstretched hand ignoring her constant shouting. Kushina was too angry to notice what was about to happen as she opened her mouth again ready for another onslaught of words. Akane tapped her daughter in the head as Kushina gasped. She finally realized what happened but it was too late. A sealing symbol appeared on Kushina's forehead as she instantly lost consciousness.

Akane breathed a sigh of relief as she caught her daughter before she fell to the ground. Finally this little fiasco was over, or at least temporarily. She used one of the many simple Fuuin seals used by Uzumaki teachers and disciplinary advisors. She temporarily sealed of Kushina's consciousness which will continue to remain active for about a half an hour, depending on the amount of chakra used. Akane preferred to use the standard amount.

Gemmei walked in as he saw his collapsed daughter in the hands of his spouse. He tried his best not to look surprised as he saw the sealing formula on her forehead. He knew exactly what had transpired as a small smile threatened to creep across his face. "I'd have to say," he said calmly, "This is rather unexpected of you."

"Well she wouldn't shut up," responded Akane with her eyes still on Kushina. She then brushed her hand across her daughters face, removing the strand of hair from her eye.

"Usually I'm the strict parent. May I assume that you finally see my side of things?"

"Just for today, honey," she said with a small chuckle. She then sat Kushina down as she walked over to her husband and kissed him on the forehead. She then grasped him in a hug as unexpected tears streamed down her face in a sob. "Life's only gonna get harder for her."

Gemmei felt his wife's warmth and extinctively grasped her as well as he brought her closer. He stroked her back as she cried into his shoulder trying to be as quiet as possible so that Junko and Kahori didn't see her like this. She only prayed that somehow someone could save her from the hell she's about to be put into.

**-Minato Namikaze-**

Later that day Kushina finally awoke from her temporary lapse of consciousness as she decided to take a walk through town. Couldn't hurt. As she walked she kept her head down as she kicked the dirt from her feet. To think that her mom would use 'that' technique on her. That's something she expected her father to do, not her peace-loving mom. She wasn't nearly as angry as she was surprised. She didn't think her mom had it in her to actually discipline her kids. Maybe everyone was just stressed about the move or something.

Just then, Kushina grasped her stomach as it growled in hunger. Maybe she should get a bite to eat. She wondered if this place actually had some decent food, and by decent food she meant some decent ramen. Her favorite food, yum! There's no way they could make it like old man Yama at home, but maybe they can satisfy her hunger at least.

Kushina lifted her head for the first time since she decided to take a walk to look for any sign of a restaurant. She couldn't find any near her so she decided to walk a little bit more and maybe come across one. As she walked she couldn't help but notice the stares from the villagers. They acted like she was a ghost or something. Every time she would walk by they would stop everything they were doing and glare at her. Kushina then subconsciously wiped her face as she wondered if there was something there or not. She didn't feel anything as she gave up and decided to ignore the glares and continued walking.

As she continued to walk and go deeper into town the glares only continued as she began to hear sudden whispering and snickering going on. Kushina let out a huff as a frown began to rise. What were these idiots looking at? Was she wearing her clothes backwards or something? She walked past another group of people as they glared at her and began to chuckle to each other. Kushina subconsciously checked her clothes now as she noticed that everything was as they should be. In anger she decided to continue walking on. It's like these people have never seen an Uzumaki before…wait…Uzumaki! She then grabbed her hair. Was it because of this? That seemed to confirm it as another group seemed to chuckle even more as she did that. What's wrong with her hair, dangit! She clenched her fist in anger as her face began to turn red.

"Look, now she's the same color of her hair," whispered one of the women in the group. They all began to chuckle at this not hiding their amusement this time as they transitioned into an all out group laugh. Kushina tried her best not to launch herself at the group as she twirled around trying hard not to have her long red hair trail her. She then marched off making every step let out a little bit more of her anger.

What were these idiots problem? What was wrong with her? Did no one have red hair in this stupid village! She let out fumes as she stomped her way around the corner and…

Umph!

She found herself on the ground, eating dirt as she looked up with a frown at any person who dared run into her now of all times. She stood up and saw a young boy around her size with bright blond hair and blue eyes. He had a book in his hand that looked like it was about Fuuinjutsu. His appearance looked almost flaky and girly as he looked very nervous right now.

The young boy scratched the back of his head embarrassingly, "U-Uhm...Sorr..."

"Beat it kid!" she said as she pushed him back down to the ground and continued on her angry march down the street.

**-Minato Namikaze-**

Minato watched as the angry girl marched off into the distance. He stood back up as he desperately tried to brush the dust from the new book Kyoraku-sensei gave him after his successful science experiment. The book was called 'Advanced Fuuinjutsu'. Minato had read some of it and even practiced a few of the easier seals at home as he tried to get a grip on sealing jutsu's. Apparently the experiment at school was just to test the students' creative ability at trying to accomplish the task. He didn't expect anyone to actually succeed.

After he successfully dusted himself and the book off, he stood up as he watched the red haired girl angrily twirled around the corner. Why was she so angry? Was it something he did? Should he have been more careful? One thing's for certain, she was definitely beautif…

Oh no! Minato clutched the sides of his head as he shook himself trying to forget the thought. What was he thinking! Was he supposed to think like that? Was that normal? Is he one of those 'pervert' things or whatever now? Minato didn't know what to do! He then grabbed his book and frantically ran in the opposite direction.

**-Minato Namikaze-**

Kushina stood next to the shop with widened eyes and a slacked jaw as she stared at the magnificent sign that read 'Ichiraku Ramen'! No way! There was a restaurant here that was dedicated to the best food in existence! If it wasn't for the events of before she would've almost certainly jumped for joy, but being determined to not like this place she decided to keep her frown as she marched into the small restaurant. As she walked in two couples walked out as they giggled and chuckled at the site of her hair. All excitement seemed to vanish from her system as she mentally tied herself down so she didn't do anything stupid to those idiots. She decided to let it go.

She sat down on one of the stools in front of the counter and waited for service. A middle-aged man, appearing in his 40's, in a chef's robe, approached her. He looked to be bald but she couldn't be sure because he wore a tall chef's hat on his head making it nearly impossible to tell. The most interesting thing about him was his face. His eyes were squinty and he had a very warm smile on his face. A smile that almost made her want to return it, if she wasn't so angry at the time. The smile even looked genuine, not the fake smiles that all store clerks give you but this one was warm and inviting…but then again he could be a really good faker.

"Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen! What would you like today miss?" he asked with a voice that was almost as warm and inviting as his smile was.

Kushina's eyes widened at the seemingly genuine smile as she subconsciously stroked a strand of her red hair, wondering if he noticed it yet. What was she an idiot? Of course he noticed! He probably hated it too. She then lowered her head as she responded her order. "Uhm, I'll just have some ramen, I guess," she said sullenly.

The apparent restaurant owner almost looked surprised at the sudden depressing voice as his smile wavered a little. He seemed to study her for a moment while his smile returned full force as he turned to his side and called out, "Teuchi!"

Kushina heard some rustling around as a door to the left of her opened revealing a young boy, around her age, coming through. He also had a chef's robe on as he wiped the sweat from his brow. "What do you want old man?" The restaurant owner put his arm around the young boy as he seemed to ignore the disrespectful response.

"This is my son, Teuchi," he started, pointing to his son, "He's my assistant and helps me prepare the food for the people."

"Which means I do all the work while he sits on his butt all day," Teuchi grumbled. The owner then patted his son on the head.

"That's because you're in training son," he said with a proud smile, "I want you to be prepared when you take over this business."

Teuchi frowned as he proceeded to fold his arms around his chest, "Ugh, I already told you old man. I wanna be a ninja. Not work at this dumb old restaurant."

"Well you can't be a ninja unless you apply for the academy," the owner said with a smirk.

Teuchi then turned his head with an angry pout, "Well I'll be a ninja without going to that stupid academy." Kushina silently chuckled to herself at that remark. She knew that it was literally impossible to be a ninja without passing the academy first. Not only does it teach about the basic uses of chakra in a very advanced, systematic system, but you also need it for credential purposes as well. Meaning unless you have that headband, you're not a ninja.

The owner seemed to have a kick out of this as well as he laughed out loud and slapped his hand on his son's back. "Keep dreaming kid!" Teuchi just turned his back towards him with a pout and an 'hmph' as well. "Anyways," the owner continued as his laugh died down, "My name's Sanji and I'm the owner of Ichiraku Ramen. Nice to meet you!" He then reached out to shake Kushina's hand with that warm, inviting smile of his.

Kushina shook his hand with widened eyes as she was surprised by his kindness. Is he actually this friendly or is he just a really, really good faker? Sanji then turned to his son as he instructed him to greet the customer. Teuchi kept his frown as he moved to shake Kushina's hand.

"I'm Kushina," she said with a rare smile. The smile instantly withered away as well as any hint of happiness she felt at the moment with his next words.

"Why is your hair red? Did you dye it or something?"

Kushina's eyes seemed to turn to electric sparks as she grabbed the boy by his collar and stood with one foot on the counter. "Why you got a problem, punk?"

"Yeah! It's weird!" he responded as he grabbed her collar and got into her face as well. Electricity seemed to travel from each of their eyes at the sudden hostility. They stood like that in the sudden staring contest for a while before Sanji stepped in.

"Now, now, Teuchi. We can't treat our customers like that? Now can we?" Sanji said as he picked his son up from the back of his collar, dragging him away. Kushina and Teuchi still kept glaring at each other with furrowed brows as he set his son down and gestured to the stove. "Why don't you make Kushina's ramen now," he said with a nervous smile. He then turned to Kushina, "Sorry, he's a little grumpy now from all the work he had to do today."

"Yeah, I bet," Kushina responded with a pout after hearing Teuchi's growling.

While the ramen was cooking Kushina and Sanji took the time to talk. Kushina learned quite a bit from the old man. She learned about the death of his wife and why he decided to open this shop in the first place. Apparently, his wife was the one who taught him ramen and after she passed away, he decided to make this restaurant dedicated to her, Ichiraku. Also during the conversation, Kushina started opening up to him as well. She had revealed that she was from the Uzumaki clan and how they had just moved into the village. She talked about her life back home and how much she loved it there and how she hated having to move. She also talked about how villagers here treated her differently about her hair.

"Well people can get pretty judgmental sometimes. But don't worry," he said with a warm smile, "Sooner or later, they'll get used to it. Trust me, it's only temporary."

"Thanks, old man," she responded.

Just then she smelt something. Something in the distance that threatened to send her eyes rolling to the back of her skull. It was the beautiful aroma of cooked ramen coming her way as she almost melt in her seat. The smell was the same smell she used to get at old man Yama's back at home. It was the kind of smell that would send any ramen lover to the grave with a beautiful smile on their face. She fought long and hard to not let the drool escape the edges of her mouth. She mentally went through a couple of breathing exercises as the source of the breath-taking smell made its way to the counter she sat next too.

"There you go. Eat up!" Old Man Sanji smiled.

Kushina hurriedly fluttered through her pockets and grabbed all the money in it as she placed it on the counter, hoping that they would work out how much money is there. Sanji took the money and began to count it as Kushina stared at the beautiful masterpiece laid in front of her. It's been too long since she had her favorite food….too long.

She hesitantly grabbed the chopsticks that lay next to the food and almost awaited confirmation to start eating her heart's delight. She looked and saw Old Man Sanji smiling at her as he…nodded.

Almost any trained ninja would have a hard time following the speed at which she attacked the meal. Yes, attacked. Bite after bite was like food heaven. She continued to slurp in the breath-taking noodles with the perfect amount of salt and water, mixed in with the magnificent chicken-based broth that was flavored with the perfect amount of soy sauce. Bite after bite after bite, each and every time was like all the world's problems seemed to flutter away and left her and her beautiful ramen. No more did she have to think about how much she missed her home and her friends. No more did she have to think about having to go to that dreadful academy building again. No more did she have to worry about the villagers hating her for her natural hair and no more did she have to think about having 'that' inside of her. She was free. She was free from every heavy burden that had held her down from the day she was born. No more worries as she dipped the silky noodles in side of the chicken broth and inhaled it as she tried desperately not to pass out. Tears threatened to fall down her face as she took another breath-taking bite. This was like Old Man Yama's ramen…no, it was better! This was the best ramen she has ever had! Ever! She fought long and hard to keep back the tears as she finished the last bit and slurped the amazing broth. She then set down the bowl on the counter as she finished with a burp. This is what you called…ninja heaven.

Kushina looked up and saw 20 ryo on the counter as she expected that to be her change. She then stuffed the bills in her pocket as she saw Teuchi, wide eyed with a huge grin on his face as he spoke, "Well, did you like it?" He asked excitedly. She glanced over at Old Man Sanji who smiled through squinty eyes. She then looked back at the bowl and up to the grinning Teuchi.

"…It was alright," she said as she turned on her stool and started towards the exit. She smiled as she heard the torrent of words and Sanji trying to hold back his angered son.

"ALRIGHT? ALRIGHT? I'LL TEACH YOU 'ALRIGHT'! YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE…"

"Teuchi calm down!" Sanji yelled.

"Good day, Old Man Sanji," Kushina smiled as she waved back and excited the store. She is definitely going to visit this place again. For the ramen and…messing with Teuchi. Haha, today turned out to be a good day.

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**A/N : So yeah, tell me how you like the story so far. I know this is a Minato fanfic and this chapter is mainly Kushina, but I really wanna focus on their relationship so treat this as a Minato and Kushina fanfic :P Minato will be next chapter for sure.**

**So yeah, please review! Its' so easy now. You just type away and it reviews. I love the new system, lol.**

**-BDProductions sighning out.**


	3. Chapter 3 : The Red HotBlooded Habanero

**A/N : Alright hopefully a change of plans. I'm not gonna make this fic as long as I initially thought. I'm going to try to quicken the pace a little bit more and get to the point a little faster. Also, I know this is a bit Kushina heavy at the moment and less Minato, but I really wanted to capture her emotions and thoughts of being bullied and not accepted, so yeah. Also consider this a Minato and Kushina fic, because I also want to focus on the growth and relationship between the two aswell.**

**Well anyways, enjoy the story(see you at the bottom of the page :P) Oh yeah and I changed Chapter 2's title and put it here.**

* * *

**Introduction Arc : Chapter 3 - The Red-Hotblooded Habanero**

Walking into the classroom Minato closed his book on Fuuinjutsu as he looked up for the first time since he entered the academy building. He had his nose in this book ever since he got it trying to learn as much seals as he possibly can. Starting from learning more about calligraphy, he had gradually moved up to some of the more advanced B-rank seals. He was particularly interested in the summoning seals. With a little drop of blood and a few hand signs, it allowed instant travel to the given location. It was known as one of the first Space-Time Ninjutsu ever invented and sprouted many other uses. As Minato sat down he thought of the prospect of having a seal like that. Would it be possible to summon yourself to a given location?

Minato looked around and noticed the many kids filling the room. He had barely noticed but he was actually one of the last ones here. After three years of attending the academy and being here on record time, he had never ever been the last one. Ever. It brought a certain nostalgic feeling to his stomach. He sighed as he made a mental note to not let that happen again. If that ever became habit, he would be in some serious trouble.

Yachiro walked over and took his seat next to Minato. He then folded his hands behind his head as he kicked his foot up on the table. He sighed a happy dreamily sigh as he smiled with closed eyes.

"Good day?" Minato asked as he chuckled.

Yachiro seemed to respond to this as he almost jumped out of his seat in excitement. "Was it a good day! Was it a good day! Of course it was!" he almost yelled, "Today before school, in the Uchiha compound, I saw Mikoto walking past me and I said 'Hi' to her and guess what she did!"

"What?" Minato asked.

"She smiled and said 'hi' back!" He then sighed dreamily again as he almost fainted in his seat. Minato looked at him with a confused gaze. He didn't understand much about romance and girls except for the fairy tale's his mom used to read him. He had heard his mom say that woman speak in code one time. Was 'hi' a certain code word for 'I love you' or something. He didn't know, but one thing was for certain. Yachiro was now on Cloud 9.

Minato quickly turned his head as he noticed the many footsteps approaching his location. "Hey Iraki," he said with a smile.

Iraki smiled mockingly as he turned to the small group huddled around Minato. "Look guys! It's the book worm!" The group all started to laugh as they pointed to Minato and chanted the new nickname given to him.

"Haha, look at this one," one of the guys in the group said. His name was Maki Ichinose. He was Iraki's right hand man. He then reached out and grabbed Minato's book. On instinct Minato grabbed as well, before Maki could bring it closer to him.

A frown appeared on Iraki's face as he slapped Minato's hand away allowing the book to freely be in Maki's grasp. "I'll tell my big brother on you if you pull a stunt like that again!"

"Yeah, he's a genin too!" Maki responded. Minato scratched the back of his head in confusion, not completely sure what was going on. Is there something they wanted with him?

"Hey back off, Iraki!" said a familiar voice from behind. The group seemed to split apart, allowing Choza, Shikaku, and Inoichi through to meet the group's ring leader.

Choza cracked his knuckles as a threatening glare appeared on his face. "Back away from our friend," he said simply but with enough coldness to get his point across. They weren't messing around.

Shikaku sighed as he put his hands into his pocket in a lazy-like manner, "Yeah, why don't you pick on someone else?"

Iraki almost shivered in his shoes as he thought of the aspect of getting beat up by 'these three'. He decided to stand his ground and use his supposed 'trump card'. "I-I'll get my big brother on you!"

Inoichi held a malicious smile on his face as he gladly responded to that, "And then what?"

Iraki shivered again as he responded with a simple 'nothing' and motioned for their group to leave. His brother was a genin, but these three were the legendary Ino-Shika-Cho team that came every generation. There teamwork was impeccable. Rumor has it that they beat up a chuunin before. That's not something he wanted to mess with.

Choza sighed as he watched them leave, "Finally they left."

"Yeah that guy pisses me off," Inoichi added, "Everyone knows that he's dead last in the class. He keeps using that 'Big Brother' card of his."

"Yeah, I heard his brother barely passed the academy," Choza followed up.

Shikaku leaned down as he picked up Minato's book and handed it to him, "Just don't pay any attention to him. That's exactly what he wants."

"Well…Don't worry Minato. We got your back," Choza said.

"Thanks guys," Minato smiled.

They then went towards their seats as their sensei walked in with a notepad and clipboard in hand. She then sat in her desk as she started to take roll call.

"Nanoe-sensei!" Everyone turned their head as they noticed Iraki standing up with his hand out. Almost everyone in the class took a mental sigh as they prepared for the daily yelling match between the two.

Nanoe-sensei sighed as she readjusted her glasses and looked up at the student, "Yes, Iraki?"

Iraki clenched his fist in anger as he pointed to the Ino-Shika-Cho group. "I was just talking to Minato and THESE THREE THREATENED ME!"

Inoichi turned his head and gave him a threatening glare as Iraki shivered in his seat. "Iraki, you threaten students all the time. Please sit down," the sensei responded. The class started to chuckle at this, angering Iraki even more.

"But that's not fair!" he yelled.

"Sit. Down. Iraki," Nanoe-sensei said in a threatening tone.

Iraki growled as his face turned beat red. "Ugh, I'll get my big b…"

"Your big brother?" She asked as she almost laughed at the thought of being threatened with a genin who 'she' taught.

Iraki noticed his flaw as he reluctantly sat back down. That's the second time today that his 'trump card' failed. He then pouted as he turned his head facing the window.

Nanoe-sensei finished the last of her attendance sheet as she set it down on her desk. "Ok class," she started as she walked to the front, facing the students, "Today we have a new student."

Everyone looked up in surprise at the prospect of having someone new. There was something about a having a new student that was exciting. Maybe it was the aspect of meeting someone new and having a new face around here that wasn't the same people they've seen for three straight years. But what student would be able to join the academy this late. There was only one year left before their class's graduation. Minato closed his book again as he looked up in anticipation, waiting to see who this new face was.

**-Minato Namikaze-**

Kushina stood in the hallway next to her Chuunin guide as she performed a couple breathing exercises to suppress her nervousness. She had hoped to make a good first impression today but they hope all but disappeared as soon as she entered the academy building. She fought hard to keep herself from sweating from the nervousness and pinched her legs, hoping that pain would stop the shaking. She began something as simple as breathing extremely difficult and even considered using a paralyzing seal to keep her still. Today was going to go perfect. She had planned out exactly how she was going to make her first impression. She was going to wow the academy students of Konoha with her vibrant personality. She was going to make friends with everyone despite how someone acted or if they looked weird. She would be fun and loving and be the one person everyone was dying to be with. She would enter the classroom and proudly state her name and inspire their dreams by shouting one of her own, to be the first female hokage in this village. She would be the funnest person to be around and they would be too distracted by her beautiful personality to notice her abnormal red hair. She knew exactly how this was going to turn out, but as soon as she entered the academy building all her aspirations and pre-prepared speeches seemed to fly out the window. She wasn't going to wow anyone. She was a nervous wreck and couldn't even figure out how to breathe properly, something she somehow forgotten after 10 years of living. She sighed. Well at least there's only one year of this crap-hole.

The door opened as her new homeroom sensei motioned for them to come in. Kushina's heart practically flew out of her chest as the shaking came back with 10x more intensity. Her chuunin academy guide smiled to her and motioned her to step forward. It was no use. Kushina's shaking legs wouldn't move even if she wanted them to. The guide simply nudged her forward as she felt movement in her legs again and hesitantly proceeded forward. She walked into the room as she nervously gulped. There was silence, unbearable silence. Her body temperature seemed to go to abnormal levels as her armpits started to sweat giving her a musty smell. She would just use the cologne her mother bought her when they have a break. She then bit the inside of her lip to stop her shaking as she stared at the thousands of students in the classroom, at least it seemed that way. Everyone's eyes beamed on her waiting to be introduced to this new student of theirs. She nervously glanced around trying to avoid all eye contact. Her heart beat faster and faster as her Chuunin guide started to speak.

"Hello class," he began with a smile as the class responded with a resounding 'hello' back. He seemed to be a lot more cheerful then Kushina was. He then motioned towards Kushina as she hesitantly stepped forward. Her breathing was getting harder and harder to control as she kept biting the inside of her lip to stop the shivering. This can't be happening. She can't start out like this. She can't back down. She HAD to make a good first impression, it was essential. She had to get people to like her for her personality and not focus on her red hair. She had to go through with her plan. She can't be nervous like this. The Chuunin continued, "As you have probably heard, we have a new transfer student today who will be attending our academy." This was it, she was going to proudly announce her name to the world and show these snot-nosed brats the awesome power of Kushina Uzumaki! "Her name is…" She closed her eyes and…

"I'm Kushina Uzumaki, Datebane!" she practically screamed. No! That was too much! She then opened her eyes and saw the humorous looks on their faces as she clasped her hand to her mouth in embarrassment. Dangit! She screwed up her the first impression that she spent hours on the night before.

Iraki stood up in excitement as he screamed in laughter. "Hahaha! Look at the color of her hair!" The class seemed to just notice the vibrant red on the top of her head as they looked on curiously.

"Yeah, who has hair like that! Hahaha!" Maki followed up as he also screamed in laughter. The whole class seemed to follow suit as the room roared in laughter with everyone pointing and laughing at the odd colored hair.

Kushina looked down sullenly as she unconsciously gripped her long red hair. She regretted ever leaving the hat she planned to wear that would almost definitely disguise it completely. She looked down in disgust at herself as she tried to drown out the laughter. 'Who has red hair like that' they said, 'How do you get it that red' they said, they called her hair weird. Everyone seemed to continue to take shots at her hair as the Chuunin tried to calm them down. Everyone hated it. Everyone in this damn village hater her hair. What was wrong with it? No one made a big deal about it back at home! Did no one here have red hair except her and her family! Why was it such a big deal! Kushina griped her fist and started to shake. It wasn't out of nervousness this time, but out of complete anger. She wasn't going to let them get to her! She wasn't going to let these immature brats bully her like this. She was a year above them! She started to shake even more furiously. "I'm…" she started, "I'm going to be the first female hokage!"

Kushina looked up and saw the opened mouth, wide-eyed surprise from the students who seemed shocked. She breathed outward once she heard silence again. That will shut these douche bags up. She looked around as everyone seemed to still be in shock. It wasn't everyday that someone were to claim to take the hokage spot with such intensity, especially an outsider like her.

**-Minato Namikaze-**

Minato simply smiled. This was the same girl that bumped into him the other day. Everyone seemed to dislike her hair, but he thought it was beautiful and unique. His own color of hair wasn't as rare as hers but not many in the village had it. He remembered his first time in the academy, he wasn't necessarily teased or made fun of but people definitely thought it was odd. Most people in Konoha had black or brown hair. The academy students thought his hair was odd but as he got to know them and make friends they started to see his personality instead of the oddity of his hair. He had no doubt that the new student, Kushina, could also.

Everyone in the room was quiet and stared with slack jawed mouths as the 'outsider' boldly proclaimed the hokage spot. Minato smiled at this. Hearing her talk about being hokage despite being a woman and an outsider inspired his own dream of being hokage. Minato stood up with his glowing smile as he rest his fist on his chest. "I also want to become Hokage," he said, "Someone who will be admired by everyone in the village."

Kushina looked up at the blond boy. He was the same kid who ran into her that other day. As if he'll become hokage. The boy looks like he couldn't even hurt a fly let along kill people for the village. Him wanting to be hokage was more outstretched than her, an outsider, becoming hokage. But there was something about him. His eyes, his eyes were different from everyone else's. He didn't look at her mockingly or like she was different. It was the same as old man Sanji's, he looked at her like he accepted her before she even spoke two words to him. He looked like they had already been friends for years. Kushina sighed as she walked up to a seat in the back, away from everyone.

After class Kushina grabbed her newly assigned books as she stood up to go to her next class. This class period wasn't so bad. The sensei showed her scary face after taking off her glasses to get the brats to stop laughing at her hair. During class they read a bit about Konoha's history and the strength of the village as a whole. She guessed that it was mostly for her. She stood up to leave as she almost bumped into the boy that stepped in front. She stepped to the side as he followed. She then stepped to the other side as he did so as well. It was obvious that he was blocking her path.

"Move kid! What do you want!" she said angrily. Soon more people came and surrounded her. Kushina gripped her fist in anger.

"Look at her! She looks like a tomato!" he exclaimed to his friends. They all roared in laughter as they repeated her new nickname. It was like Junko and Kahori all over again…but worse. Each time they said that stupid nickname she wanted to bash their skulls in. She tried to hold herself back, she really did, but they just wouldn't relent.

"From today on," Iraki said with a mocking smile, "Were going to call you Tomato." His group laughed even more.

"Yeah," added Maki, "You have a fat round face with red hair! Just like a Tomato!" The laughing increased.

"As if a tomato can become hokage," Iraki laughed.

"Yeah I hate tomatoes!" Maki followed.

"Me too, I never eat it in my salads," said another in the group.

Iraki put his hands behind his head as he smiled mockingly. "A tomato that everyone hates can never be accepted as the Hokage!" The group laughed in agreement.

Kushina clenched her fist as she fought to stop shaking. She tried to breath in and stay calm but with everything that these idiots said it just fueled her anger even more! She glanced over with a surprised look as she saw Minato. He looked at her with those same eyes. Those damn caring and sympathetic eyes. If he cared so much why wasn't he helping! Why wasn't he saying anything! He didn't care, no one did. He was just afraid of her red hair like everyone else was. They hated it…she hated it. Maybe this was fate. Kushina sighed. Tomato…that name fit her so perfectly. She did look like a fucking tomato! She had red hair and a fat face. She clenched her fist even harder as her face began to turn red in anger.

"Look," Iraki laughed, "She's getting redder and riper!" The group laughed again.

One of the kids then grabbed her hair and started to pull on it, "It's the tomato festival," he laughed, "It's time to harvest!" The group laughter grew.

Kushina pulled back as the pain in her head increased. That's it these idiots crossed the fucking line! She then grabbed his arm as the group stopped and gasped. They didn't expect her to retaliate. They guessed she didn't know about Iraki's big brother.

"Who're you calling a tomato?" she asked as she gripped his hand harder. The boy almost cried out in shock as he struggled to let go. The hand wouldn't budge. It felt like his wrist was about to break in too. Who was this girl? "Now you listen!" she continued, "I hate tomatoes too, Datebane!" She struggled to keep the tears at bay as her anger grew.

"I'm going to tell my big br…" Just then Kushina grabbed the boys other hand and swung him around knocking out the rest of the group. Iraki fell to the ground with a thud as he grasped his chest in pain. He then looked around as he saw her coming. He shivered at the thought. He tried to speak, but his mouth wouldn't move. He just stood there shivering as the red haired demon walked towards him, with her hair flailing wildly. She then pounced like a fox on a prey. She tackled him to the ground as she pound his face in. Tears came as an inhuman amount of water poured out of his eye-sockets. He grabbed his head, desperately trying to stop the pain. She just kept hitting. He tried to get up, he tried to get her off, but she was relentless.

Kushina kept pounding away. She didn't care anymore. She didn't care about making a good first impression. She didn't care about living up to the clan's name. She didn't care about beating up on this helpless kid. She just didn't care. All the anger that developed ever since she moved here she let out the one kid who tried to test her. Blood covered her fist but she just kept pounding, she didn't want to stop. She wanted him to pay! "Call me tomato again!" she yelled, "And you're going to get it! Datebane! You hear me!" The boy nodded in agreement with tears in his eyes as Kushina stopped the hitting.

Kushina looked up and saw the blond boy chuckling. She clenched her fist again as she beamed at him. "What are you laughing at!" The blond looked shocked as he quickly turned his head to avoid eye contact.

Just then the door opened and their sensei walked in. She gasped as she dropped her coffee and her clipboard and ran over to the scene. "What is going on here!" she yelled.

Maki ran up to the teacher eagerly with tears in his eyes. "Nanoe-sensei! The new girl beat up Iraki!" The rest of the group ran up and told her what happened.

She looked up at Kushina who then put her head down. Nanoe adjusted her glasses and sighed. "Kushina!" she yelled, "To the headmaster's office now!"

Kushina grudgingly sighed as she dragged her feet and left.

* * *

**A/N : Hello again :D Yeah tell me how you like the story so far. Tell me if there's anything that I need to improve on, it really helps. Contructive critism only helps better the quality of the fic. So review and see you soon xD**

**-BDProductions signing out**


	4. Chapter 4 : Iraki's Big Brother

**Introduction Arc : Chapter 4 - Iraki's Big Brother**

Kushina stared down at the crisp grass under her heavy feet as she walked through the beauty of the cherry blossom field. She used to love cherry blossom trees back at home. The vibrant pink that shone brightly under the beaming sun and the way the leaves swayed back and forth with the gentle wind. She used to spend her free time in the fields and relax while thinking about the events of the day. It was a really peaceful time especially with Mogi. Her best friend back at home and the one person she truly admired. He just had a certain aura around him that just inspired you. He would talk non-stop about how he was going to change the world and make it a better place. Coming from him, a simple newly appointed genin, was simply a pipe dream to most people, but he held so much conviction that you had no choice to be inspired. Kushina sighed.

She missed Mogi.

She missed Mogi, her friends, her clan and most of all…her home. Why did she have to move? Why did she have to leave everything behind and come here? Here of all places! These lowly ignorant, idiotic excuses of villagers. Why did everyone have to hate her? It's not like she had a nasty personality (well…maybe sometimes). It's not like she's some kind of evil terrorist sent to destroy the city or something. She just moved here and no one would even give her a chance!? Before she even walked through the doors of that stupid academy, they already decided not to like her! And why? Simply because those stupid idiots hated the color of her hair! Was that any reason to hate someone!? Was that any reason to treat someone like their some kind of monster!? What did these villagers have against the color red!? Ugh! The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. Her knuckles were sore from clenching them so hard. Kushina then performed a couple breathing exercises so these stupid villagers don't come and call her a tomato or something idiotic like that.

Kushina perked up as she heard rustles to the left. Kushina stopped as she turned her head to the slight rustling noise behind one of the trees. 'Not now,' she thought, 'Please be an animal. Please be an animal. Please be an animal.' She chanted to herself over and over again as she watched on in anticipation for who or what would come out from behind those trees.

Regretfully a boot made its appearance as it stepped forward. A frown instantly appeared on Kushina's face as she clinched her fist. Whoever followed her here was definitely going to get it. She wasn't going to deal with this stupidity a second time today. If they made any comment at all about the color of her hair they were going to get a definite beatd…

Kushina stopped as her eyes widened. The boy stepped completely from behind the tree as he appeared with that ridiculous toothy grin on his face. It was Iraki Umino. The boy she beat up today at the academy.

"Hey tomato head," he laughed.

Kushina clenched her fist harder as her brows furrowed. She fought to keep her anger in check so her face didn't turn red and actually make her look like a stupid tomato. "I told you didn't I?" Kushina snarled, "If you EVER call me that again I'll…"

"You'll what?"

A bead of sweat fell from Kushina's face as her stomach dropped and her heart rate increased to dangerous levels. Another boy almost twice as tall as Kushina and Iraki stepped from behind the tree with a threatening grin on his face. Kushina couldn't help but tremble as he stepped forward and placed his hand on Iraki's shoulder. He towered over them, easily. The most terrifying thing, however, was not his height. It was the object shining brightly on his head. The silky blue cloth wrapped around his head and the metal plate attached to the middle with the sign of one the strongest villages in the entire shinobi world. The symbol of Konohagakure.

Kushina gulped.

"Are you the one who's always making my kid brother cry?" he smiled confidently as he took a few steps closer to Kushina.

Kushina frowned as she clenched her fist, trying desperately to stand her ground, to not show fear in the sight of the enemy…but the shaking never stopped. "That's because he's always messing with me, Datebane! And he's such a wimp!" She yelled with a hint of shakiness as she bit her lip to stop her from crying. Dangit. Why was she about to cry? Why? He's probably that genin brother Iraki is always talking about. He can't be that strong can he? She used to be a genin too. She can beat this guy, she knew it!

But the shaking didn't stop.

The older genin bent down, meeting eyes with Kushina as she unconsciously stepped back. He then pointed to his headband mockingly. "I'm a genin! Cool huh," he chuckled. He then stood back up as he threateningly cracked his knuckles and loosened his joints as if preparing for a fight. "I have to teach anyone who bullies my kid brother a lesson," he continued.

This is it! She can beat this guy! She can do it! She was Kushina Uzumaki from the Uzumaki clan, feared amongst all the countries in the shinobi world. This was her time to shine. She was going to beat this cocky bastard, Datebane!

**-Minato Namikaze-**

Minato dashed through the many cherry blossom trees as he tried to locate that familiar red hair. After the chaotic events at the academy, Iraki pronounced to everyone how badly his brother was going to beat up that red-headed freak. All this time he pulled the 'big brother' card to get what he wanted but this time, however, it seemed that he was actually going to follow through. Minato wasn't worried though. Kushina was strong. He knew that. The way she handled Iraki and his crew was enough to know that she was skilled. She showed all the characteristics of a beginning shinobi. She was quick to react and showed good reflexes. She had considerable amount of strength shown by how she lifted one of the members and basically used him as a bat and most of all, she showed little to no openings in her attack, at least none that Iraki and his crew could take advantage of. He had no doubt in his mind that Kushina could take care of this genin.

Iraki's brother, Hideki Umino, wasn't all that special. He was average at best. Average test scores, average fighting skills, he had no specialty in the jutsu category, which is essential to being an excellent shinobi; he was just simply average. Kushina, as an academy student, should be around his level or at least close. There shouldn't be that much of a noticeable skill difference. All in all it should be an interesting fight.

Just then Minato saw that familiar flash of red as he noticed Kushina dashing through the trees. He then saw Hideki trailing right behind her with a confident grin on his face. Hideki then reached into his ninja pouch and pulled out a kunai. He threw it towards Kushina, aiming for her arms, obviously not trying to go for a fatal blow in a small little school fight. It was a simple scare tactic to throw her off her rhythm. Minato smiled as he saw her easily dodge the kunai only being slightly surprised by the danger. She then bounced of a tree and dashed at Hideki who was stuck in mid air and didn't have a chance to dodge. Minato pumped his fist slightly at the tactical maneuver. She clotheslined him as he fell to the ground. Kushina smiled and started to walk over to Iraki.

'It's not over yet,' thought Minato.

The body that was sprawled out on the ground poofed into smoke as it revealed a log in its wake. Kushina looked dumbfounded. Hideki then appeared behind her and gave a simple chop to the neck. Kushina gasped as she started to fall. The genin then kicked her in the back, sending her spiraling forward. Minato covered an eye, hoping that Kushina had another trick up her sleeve. Hopefully she could bounce back. It was highly unlikely though.

Kushina struggled as she tried to get up. Hideki chuckled as he ruthlessly picked her up by the hair. Kushina screamed as she struggled to get free from his grasp. "You can't even recognize a substitution jutsu," he laughed, "Your just a kid." Tears streamed down Kushina's cheek as Hideki mercilessly continued, "Your hair's so red," he said as he tugged at it more, getting more screams from her, "And it's stiff like thread. Hair like this is ugly!"

Iraki burst out in laughter as he got in Kushina's face, "Serves you right!" he laughed. Minato shielded his eyes from the scene. He knew that this was their fight and he shouldn't interfere. His father used to tell him all the time. Sometimes you have to let people resolve their own problems, face their own demons. Minato knew that this wasn't his fight to fight.

Tears streamed down Kushina's face as she began to sob, surprising both Iraki and Hideki. "I-I don't like my hair either!" she yelled. She then pulled forward trying desperately to get out of Hideki's grasp. Her long red hair starting to rip from her scalp. She finally pulled free, leaving a few strands in Hideki's hands. She then instantly turned around and sent a punch at his gut, knocking the wind out of him. She then hit him with a round house kick making a good cracking noise upon impact. Next, she sent chakra to her feet as she boosted herself high into the air and brought her foot crashing down on the opponents head as he collapsed to the ground. She instantly pounced on him like she did with his younger brother. Punch after punch landing with fierce anger implemented in each one. Iraki was completely dumbfounded. He slowly started to back away in complete shock at how ferocious this person was.

"But," she started as she continued the pounding, "Even with hair like this, I'm still me! What choice do I have?!"

Iraki started to shake in fear as he turned tail and ran. This girl, this outsider just defeated his genin brother! "Ah!" he screamed, "It's the Red Hot Habanero!"

Kushina breathed heavily as she stopped the bounding and stood up. She saw the blood covering her fist and the blood spread out on the opponents face. She started to shake after coming to the realization of what she did. This was nothing like her. This isn't the Kushina she's been all these years. Back at home she would've never been like this. She was never as merciless as she was now. Where had all this anger come from?

Hideki frowned as he threw the hair strands in Kushina's face. He then struggled to get up as he spoke, "As if an outsider like you can become Hokage!" He then turned his back and walked away, kicking the dust at his feet in frustration as he went.

Kushina watched as he left. Some first impression she's made. Everyone in the village hates her now. She then heard some rustling in the trees behind her as she instantly turned around. She half expected Iraki, but it wasn't him. It was that blond haired kid. That girly kid in class who said he wanted to be hokage. He had those same eyes. The same eye's that Old Man Sanji had when he first saw her. It was different from the other villagers. It was like he wanted to get to know her, like he saw her as a person rather than the color of her hair. Like he was trying to understand her. Kushina clenched her fist as she frowned.

"You're not going to help me because I'm an outsider, Right?!" she yelled as tears threatened to form around her eyes.

Minato widened his eyes in surprise. "No, I…"

"I bet you agree with them too!" she screamed as she ran off.

Minato scratched the back of his head as he watched her run off and sighed. Did he mess up? Should he have helped her? Minato jumped down from the tree and put his hands in his pocket as he started to make his way back home.

**-Minato Namikaze-**

Kushina panted heavily as she ran with tears streaming down her cheeks. She hated it here. She hated moving here. Everyone in this village hated her. They hated her simply because of the color of her hair! Why?! Was it so wrong to have red hair!? Is it really that big of a deal?! Saying things like 'She can't become Hokage with red hair' or 'an outsider can't become Hokage'. Who wants to be hokage anyways? It's because she wants this village to become her home. She doesn't want to be an outsider anymore. That's the only reason why she said that.

**-Minato Namikaze-**

The next few months weren't as bad for Kushina, at least not as bad as it could've been. After explaining her case to the headmaster, he let her off with only a two-day suspension. Not that long considering how some sensei's were talking of expulsion. Those two days at home were the worst of it all. She got a mouthful from her mother and a very stern disappointed glare from her father. It didn't help that Kahori and Junko were making fun of her the whole time. Like normal when she gets in trouble, she usually got two different punishments. Her mother made her clean up the whole house and pestered her for missing the slightest blind spot, it didn't help that she got her chakra sealed away. Her father however made her read boring Fuuinjutsu scrolls and the history of the Uzumaki clan and tested her on it when she was done. And the punishment she got from her devil siblings was constant pestering from the both of them with no chakra at her disposal to seal their loud mouths shut.

The time at the academy was manageable to say the least. Iraki's crew stopped picking on her and cowered away when they saw her. It seems that this is the first time Iraki saw his brother get beat up before. That simple fact made her feared in the classroom and gave her the proud title of the Red-Hot Habenaro, the academy student who beat up a ninja(even if she did just catch him off guard). Making friends was hard, however. Either people just didn't like her because of her being an outsider or they were simply scared of her. She would spend most of the free time that the sensei's gave them by herself wishing that someone would come and talk to her. The only person who at least tried to talk to her(if constant stuttering counted as talking) was that Minato-brat. As if she would want to talk to him anyways. He had no use being in the academy. He had good grades and all, but from what she read in textbooks, the ninja world was far from pretty and a goody-two shoe like him wouldn't last one second in it. She wouldn't be surprised if he stayed a genin his entire life or at least quit. He just simply wasn't ninja material.

Today, however, was finally the end of this stupid academy, it was finally graduation day. The genin exams were fairly easy for her. She knew almost all the answers to the written portion, having taken it before back at Uzushiogakure. The only questions she kind of struggled in was the Konoha History portion. She passed the taijutsu part with flying colors and the jutsu was consisting of the Clone Jutsu, Substitution Jutsu, and the Transformation Jutsu. All three of them she was proficient in so it was child's play. She found it funny when Iraki failed and threatened the Chuunin teacher with his Genin brother again. The class laughed at his attempt. At least he felt semi-better when the rest of his group failed as well. This was the time that they would be introduced to their future teammates that they would most likely be with for the rest of their ninja career, being trained under their Jonin sensei. Kushina felt excited at the prospect. Her and her teammates would have to get along if they were to have any success as ninja, so she was bound to make at least one friend(as sad as that sounds).

Kushina looked up in anticipation as Nanoe-sensei stood up to talk. She went on about the history of Konoha(which they seem to cover a lot) and the success of ninja over the years. How this class was the beginning of a new generation of ninja and how they should be proud to serve Konoha and how she hopes that we would become great ninja someday. She then went on about the role of a ninja and how they are tools and all that yada-yada-yada. Kushina had already zoned out by then, been there done that. Her attention, however, was on the Jonin sensei present. They didn't seem like much but; one of them had long white hair with red markings running from the bottom of his eyelid to his chin. He had a book in his hand and seemed to be writing something. He was sitting on a…wait was that a toad? What was a toad doing here? Whatever, Kushina shook it off. Konoha ninja sure were weird. Another stood tall and stern and had a proud grin on his face. He had long, spiky, silvered colored hair(and they thought her hair had a weird color) and his ninja headband proudly resting on his forehead. The next one was rather creepy looking. He had bleach white skin with snake-like eyes, eyes that just bore in your soul. He just had a certain appearance that just said 'stay clear'. He was the last person she would want as a sensei. He would probably eat her…literally. He seemed to have his gaze on Fugaku Uchiha, one of the Uchiha prodigies of the classroom. The last one however, had a more charming appearance. Kushina curled into a ball as her cheeks flushed red. He was definitely handsome. He had long pale blue hair that reached down his back with striking green eyes. She really hoped to be with his team.

She then realized the pause in speech from Nanoe-sensei. It was now time to pick the teams. Kushina crossed her fingers and hoped that she would be in a great team. "And now for the teams…" Nanoe-sensei started.

**-Minato Namikaze-**

Minato jumped to the edge of his seat in anticipation. They were just about to announce their new genin teams and these Jonin sensei were definitely not pushovers. Jiraiya the toad sage and Orochimaru, both one of the three legendary sannin; Sakumo Hatake, the legendary white fang of Konoha; And lastly Dan Kato, most likely runner up to the revered Hokage spot. Minato was getting goose bumps all over. Being trained one of these four was definitely a HUGE honor. Nanoe-sensei then continued to name of the teams.

"For Team Jiraiya," she started. Minato shook in excitement. "Mikoto Uchiha, Chonin Akimichi, and…Minato Namikaze." Minato practically jumped out of his seat in joy. Him, Minato Namikaze, was going to be trained by the legendary Toad Sage, Jiraiya!? This was astounding! The man who personally was trained under the God of Shinobi, the man who, with Tsunade and Orochimaru, managed to hold their own against Hanzo of the Salamander, the man who trained under the great toad's at Mount Myoboku! Minato was definitely on cloud 9, especially with their choice of teammates. An Uchiha was a great advantage to have on their team with the enormous potential of the sharingan, which he was sure Jiraiya, with his extensive knowledge on ninja techniques, would progress beautifully and having a member of the Akimichi clan was great as well as their known for their powerful techniques. This was a great team in the making.

After figuring out his whole team situation, he was now curious as to where Kushina would land. Orochimaru-sensei would most likely be put with the two remaining prodigies of the class Fugaku and Shikuro and Dan Kato with his proficiency in the aspect of teamwork was almost definitely going to be put with the Ino-Shika-Cho team, which leaves Konoha's white fang, Sakumo Hatake, with Kushina. Her skills would develop tremendously under him. Anyone of their skills would develop to great lengths under any of these legendary shinobi. The reason why they picked such great ninja to be jonin sensei was most likely because of the Second Ninja War that they are currently in. They were just recalled from the war a couple months ago for this specific task. Konoha was currently winning the war but having new genin in the mix, under legendary sensei was definitely going to turn the tides.

Nanoe-sensei continued on to the next team. "For Team Sakumo," she said, "We have Shiba Aburame, Yachiro Uchiha, and Kushina Uzumaki."

Minato pumped his fist and smiled at the thought of Kushina's team. It was just like the God of Shinobi to put such perfect teams together. The rest of the teams were just like Minato predicted. Team Orochimaru consisted of Shikuro Aburame, Fugaku Uchiha, and Nawaki Senju and Team Dan consisted of Inoichi Yamanaka, Choza Akimichi, and Shikaku Nara. Once again, great teams. Minato couldn't wait till tomorrow when they meet their new teams to participate in the legendary bell test, set up by the Nidaime Hokage himself. This is a great chance for Minato to show his skills to the legendary Jiraiya-sensei.

* * *

**A/N : Yeah, sorry for the long update speed. My brother came back from memphis and I spent time with him for a bit. But now I'm back :D Also for those of you who were following my UAC : War of the Worlds, at the moment I'm going to rewrite the story. I have a lot more organized plot in my mind at the moment which will cut down on the boring parts and have ALOT more action. It's going to make the story 10x more epic. **

**So how do you guys like the new teams? I searched forever on the Naruto Wikia to find characters who could be in Minato's class. After picking 11 of them and then trying to find Jonin at the time and trying to stick to canon at the same time was pretty tedious. I also had to look into there abilities and try to match them up to see what would be the most likely team. So yeah. This is what I came up with. I know there not the greatest teams but these characters were the only ones I could find that could be in Minato's class. Also Tsume Inazuka will be a class below because I only wanted 11 of Minato's class to be joined up so it would be even. **

**So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed the story so far and make sure you review :D**


	5. Chapter 5 : New Soldiers

****A/N : Hey people, I'm back! I had a momentary hiatus and was unable to post more chapters(mostly because of laziness and procrastination :( ) But I'm back and will hopefully start posting ALOT more frequently. I hope people are still interested.

Oh yeah, I managed to condense the storyline ALOT. It will move things a long and make the overall story more interesting instead of dragging things out. So yeah hope you enjoy. This is the start of a new arc. It will focus mainly on Minato and his crew. Now on to the story...

* * *

**The Land of Tea Arc - Chapter 5 : New Soldiers**

Minato, Mikoto, and Chonin all walked up to their new sensei precariously as they noticed that he was turned around now perched on top of his toad, not moving at all. They all walked up slowly wondering why he was standing there like some kind of inanimate object. Mikoto was the brave one and took a few steps forward as she lightly tapped him on the shoulder.

"Uhm, sensei?" she questioned. Suddenly their sensei collapsed in a disheveled mess, much like an un-stringed puppet would after being dropped by its master. Mikoto palmed her face as she saw the puppet sprawled out on the floor with features that almost made it impossible to tell the difference between their real sensei and this puppet counterpart(at least from the back).

Mikoto sighed as she saw the immaturely drawn mustache and clown makeup on this things face. "Why do we have to have an idiot as a sensei?"

Minato tapped his chin as he saw a slip of paper in the mess as he picked it up to read.

"What does it say?" Chonin asked as he peered over Minato's shoulder to look at it.

"It says to meet Jiraiya-sama at the Konoha Hot Springs as soon as where done," Minato responded.

"Done doing what?" Chonin asked innocently as he opened another bag of chips after finishing the first one.

"Probably with this whole academy thing," Mikoto answered, "Let's just go now."

They both nodded their heads in agreement.

* * *

They arrived at the hot springs and Mikoto nearly died of embarrassment. The look on her face was enough to scare any well seasoned shinobi out of his shoes. She clenched her fist and walked up to Team 12's new sensei with fire burning from her eyes. Minato and Chonin trembled and closed their eyes, preparing for the wrath that was to befall him. Mikoto walked next to Jiraiya who was currently too busy peeking through the woman's bath house to notice.

She tapped him on the shoulder. Jiraiya slowly turned around, just enough to see the demon's face and the horrid glint in her eyes. He knew this look all too well and quickly pulled up his hands in defense as he desperately tried to think of a reasonable excuse for the situation.

"What are you doing, Sensei?!" she growled, as flames nearly engulfed her eyes.

"U-uhm," Jiraiya smiled nervously as he clenched all the muscles in his face to prepare for the blow.

Mikoto wound up the punch as she pulled back.

Jiraiya gulped. Getting hit by a woman was never good no matter what their rank. If Tsunade ever got wind of this he would surely have died…just like last time.

Mikoto clenched her fist tighter and seemed to unconsciously form chakra to her hand.

Sweat dripped down Jiraiya's face as he braced for impact.

Mikoto swung and…

"Oh, I get it Sensei. You're doing research so you can…uhm…teach us about stealth tactics!"

"Research?" Jiraiya questioned, he then caught on, "Oh, that's right, research! Shinobi Rule #1: Always take the stealth approach. Thanks Minato!" More sweat surfaced as he awaited Mikoto's reaction.

Mikoto sighed as she dropped her fist and the flames disappeared, "Whatever," she said. She decided to let him slide _this_ time.

Minato wiped the sweat from his brow as he breathed a sigh of relief. His dad was right. Women _are_ scary.

Chonin stood idly as he chomped on his chips while watching this whole fiasco take place. "Good thinking, Minato," he responded through bites.

Minato scratched the back of his head as he chuckled nervously. "Thanks."

After a while, when the threat of an angry Mikoto was gone, they had finally settled into the hot springs. The boys were on one side of the fence while Mikoto was on the other. She was relatively close to the gate so she could hear what the sensei was saying (also, to make sure he doesn't peek again).

The hot springs were definitely relaxing. It really took the edge off and would bring anyone in a good mood no matter what the situation. No wonder this was a famous hangout spot amongst ninja.

"So," Jiraiya started, "Mikoto, I'm assuming you can hear me."

"Loud and clear '_Sensei_'," she responded sarcastically.

Jiraiya sighed. He definitely didn't set off a good impression for Mikoto. The other two seemed receptive though. Especially that blond haired kid, Minato.

"Alright," he began, "Starting with Minato, I want you to tell me your dreams and your likes and dislikes."

Minato moved uncomfortably at the thought of being first as he started. "Uhm…my dream is to become the Hokage, someone who is well respected throughout the village. My likes..uhm…I like to train and work hard and I dislike being late."

"Okay, good. Now Chonin."

"My dream is to own the family restaurant," he said while stuffing food into his mouth, "I like food and dislike working out."

Jiraiya sweat dropped at that. "Mikoto."

There was a brief silence before she began. "My dream is to be a better ninja than that idiot, Fugaku, who thinks he's so tough because he's a boy. I mean if my father was a clan head, I would be just as strong as he is. That idiot just got lucky, that's all that is. He's so dumb and stupid and ugly and stuck up and…"

"Uhm, Mikoto," Jiraiya said while sweat-dropping, "Your likes please?"

"Oh yeah," responded Mikoto, not the slightest bit bothered by her rant session, "I like my clan, the Uchiha and I dislike that idiot Fugaku!"

"I feel sorry for Fugaku," muttered Chonin as he shivered at how scary his teammate sounded. Minato nodded in agreement with shivers of his own.

"What was that!?"

"N-nothing…" Chonin responded.

"Well anyways," Jiraiya interrupted, trying to keep on track, "In the next two months there will be a Chuunin Exam and since we are in a time of war Hokage-sama is making it mandatory for all genin to participate."

"A chuunin exam already?" questioned Mikoto, "But we just became Genin."

"Like I said, we are in a time of war and increasing the amount of soldiers at our disposal would definitely help are cause."

"War? We just came out of the academy and you expect us to fight life or death battles against experienced ninja."

"That's why Hokage-sama brought back these legendary ninja," Minato interjected.

"Precisely," Jiraiya said, "In order to give you genin proper training and the necessary assistance you need the hokage has decided to bring back his most well experienced ninja."

"But what about the war?" Chonin asked as he opened another bag of chips, "Won't we be put at a disadvantage without our most powerful shinobi."

"Yeah, what about the war," Mikoto chimed in.

"That's a good question," Jiraiya said, "Since we are currently winning the war and have more of an advantage over our enemies, the hokage thought it would be beneficial if we trained a new batch of soldiers to help turn the tides."

"So that's where we come in," Mikoto said.

"Scary," Chonin muttered as he shivered at the thought of actually fighting a war.

"Don't worry. You still have me with you," Jiraiya responded smugly.

"What's so good about you?" Mikoto said under her breath.

Jiraiya smiked as he flicked his nose with his thumb in a prideful gesture. "I'm glad you asked!" he started. He then bet the tip as he drew blood and formed a couple hand signs while slamming his hand to the ground. Minato's eyes widened in anticipation as he readjusted his posture to see it all. Chakra smoke filled the area as a toad appeared in its wake splashing water every which way. He stood on top in a ridiculous pose as he bounced from side to side on one foot with a huge grin on his face. Mysteriously music started to play in the background.

Mikoto couldn't see what was happening but from the sounds of it, Sensei was doing something idiotic again. She palmed her face as she sighed.

He then began his famous introduction.

* * *

Kushina sighed as she stuffed her hands into her pockets, trying to ignore the constant staring and whispers she got from the villagers she walked past. She had thought that with being in a team she would make friends but she was dead wrong. They didn't seem to care about the color of her hair which was a plus but they were both impossible to deal with. Yashiro was untalented and an absolute idiot, while Shiba was antisocial to the max. Her sensei was cool she guessed but this was still far from a perfect team.

Kushina perked up as she saw the sign of her favorite restaurant, Ichiraku Ramen. She reached into her pocket and found some ryo left over from what her mother gave her. She smiled as she walked into the store and smelt that beautiful aroma.

Old man Sanji approached her with squinty eyes and a firm, loving smile planted on his face. "The usual?" he asked.

Kushina nodded. "Yep!" she said enthusiastically. Ramen certainly took all your problems away.

"Alright, we well get right on it. Teuchi!"

Out of the back room, Teuchi came with his apron on. He instantly frowned as he saw Kushina. She stook her tongue out teasingly in response. "What's this tomato head doing here?"

Kushina held up her fist as she stood up. "You got a problem, ramen boy!"

Teuchi stood in front of Kushina and met her face to face. "I'm going to be a great ninja someday, so you better show me some respect!"

Kushina then pointed to the headband on her head. "I'm already a ninja!"

Teuchi's eyes widened in shock, much to Kushina's satisfaction. It seemed that he just noticed it now. He desperately tried to regain his composure as sweat dripped down his face. "W-well you're probably a bad one!"

"You wanna try me?" Kushina smiled, challengingly.

"Now, now kids," Sanji said nervously, "We wouldn't want a fight inside of the restaurant."

"He's right," Teuchi said with newfound determination in his eyes, "Me and you, 5 o' clock at the Third Training Ground!"

"Ha! You got it bud," Kushina laughed. This was going to be good.

Sanji sighed as he palmed his face. Kids these days. "Teuchi can you finish the ramen please, then you can play with your new friend."

Teuchi 'hmphed' as he turned around and went to prepare the pot. "As if she's my friend," he said under his breath.

The old man breathed out a sigh of relief as he turned towards Kushina. "So, how's being a ninja?" he asked, half interested and half trying to change to subject.

"It's alright, I guess," she muttered.

"What's that mean? Did something bad happen?"

"No, I just don't like my team, that's all."

Sanji chuckled, "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll grow into them with time."

"If you met them you would understand."

"I'm sure they can't be that bad."

"Well one of them is an idiot and the other is the most recluse person you would ever meet."

"What about your sensei?"

"He's cool I guess," she sighed.

"I heard that this year's senseis have quite the reputation."

"They don't seem like it."

"May I ask who your sensei is?"

Kushina tapped her chin in thought, "I think his name was Sak..ime Hatake or something like that."

Sanji perked up in realization. "Oh! You mean Sakumo Hatake. Konoha's White Fang!"

"Is he that great?" Kushina asked.

"Only the greatest! Everyone in the village knows who he is. I'm surprised you haven't heard of him. I heard he took out a whole enemy platoon by himself with only half the chakra!"

"Probably just a rumor," Kushina said with disbelief.

"Maybe," Sanji responded, "But he is great. You should be honored to train under him."

"He doesn't seem that strong."

"Yeah he does look rather peaceful looking and carefree." Kushina nodded her head in agreement. "But you should never judge a scroll from its front. Some of the greatest ninja are the ones who would never hurt a fly."

"Then how can they be ninja if they don't want to fight?" she asked as her stomach growled slightly. When was her food going to be done? She bet that ramen boy was holding out on purpose.

"It's the will to protect," Sanji continued.

"Protect? Protect what?" Kushina asked.

"Anything. Anything that's of importance to you, something or someone that you really care for and would do anything for. That's what makes the greatest ninja, those who have something they have to protect at all cost."

"Hm…" Kushina said as she pondered Old Man Sanji's words.

"How about you?" Sanji continued, "Do you have something to protect?"

Kushina rubbed her chin as she thought. "I guess my family."

Sanji smiled, "That's good! As you continue in your journey through life you'll find more things you want to protect, that you'd gladly risk your life for."

Kushina gazed down as she seemed to ponder that. "You know a lot," she said.

Sanji laughed, "All these years that I've been alive, you start to learn some things."

Sanji turned his head as he heard Teuchi coming with the bowl of ramen.

"Foods ready!" Teuchi exclaimed with a smile on his face as he proudly brought the bowl to the table.

Kushina smirked as she saw his proud look and decided to exploit it. "Took you long enough, slow poke."

"Watch your mouth!" he yelled, "I spent delicate time trying to make this ramen perfect and all you can do is complain! This is art!"

"I'll be the judge of that," she said smugly.

* * *

Kushina rubbed her stomach as she continued to walk home. That ramen was absolutely delicious as always. Of course she didn't tell Teuchi that. She responded with a simple 'it was alright' and left. She chuckled to herself after remembering the look on his face when he heard that the ramen he spent slaving over was 'alright'. It was a win, win situation for Kushina. She got to tease Teuchi and it forced him to make better ramen every time. She guessed that was the part of the reason Old Man Sanji allowed her to do it.

Now off to home. She was excited to show her mother and father the leaf headband shining on her head. Even though they went through this already in Uzushiogakure, she was still excited to be a leaf shinobi. She also wanted to rub in the faces of those little brats she calls siblings.

Kushina stopped.

She heard rustling leaves and turned around and glanced at the tree. There was definitely someone there. "Come out. I know your there," she exclaimed.

Out from behind the tree Kushina saw the markings of a tiger on the white Anbu mask and darkened clothes the person was wearing. The person walked clumsily in front of Kushina. "I'm surprised you actually found me," the person said in an unrealisticly deep voice.

Kushina sighed as she pulled out a shuriken and threw it at the man's legs. The man flailed his arms around desperately and clumsily tried to dodge the shuriken as it sunk into his leg. His legs seemed to stay in place as his upper body started to fall forward; he then tumbled to the ground. The man got up and was nearly half the size he originally was without his 'legs'. He then pulled off his Anbu mask revealing it to be none other than Teuchi.

"Hey! That was a real shuriken!" he yelled, "I paid good money for those stilts!" He pointed to the wooden 'legs' he brought here.

"Well you're the one who wants to be a ninja and ninja use real shuriken," she responded.

"Says you!" he pouted.

"What are you doing here anyways?"

Determination came across Teuchi's face as he pointed to Kushina, "I challenged you to a fight!"

Oh yeah. She almost forgot about that. She smiled as she took a stance, "Oh yeah? Well come at me whenever you want."

"Fine," he said. He then threw off his over-grown clothes and charged.

He actually had decent speed. From the way he ran, although terrible compared to other academy students, he seemed to be covering up at least some openings. He must have been trained in the academy before, but there were still numerous amounts of openings she could exploit.

Teuchi ran in full force and swung. Kushina sidestepped and kicked him in the chin as he flew backwards. He barely managed to get up as he rubbed the side of his face.

"I'll get you!" he yelled.

"Come on, ninja boy," Kushina taunted. Teuchi got up and charged again.

* * *

Kushina continued on her walk home as she smirked at the little 'spar' she had with Teuchi. It took a little more poundings but he finally decided to give up and go home. She had to admire his resolve though. He just kept on truckin'.

Arriving at home Kushina's heart raced at the aspect of showing her family that she had finally become a Konoha ninja. She paused as she breathed in and out to compose herself and plastered a smile on her face as she went inside.

"Mom! Dad! I'm hom…" She paused.

Her mom and her father were in the living room with several of her division's clan elders and most of all the prestigious Mito Uzumaki. Sweat dripped down Kushina's face as her eyes widened. _What was going on, s_he wanted to ask, but she was too scared. Her heart started pounding more rapidly as she noticed the piercing eyes that she got from everyone present. The atmosphere was dark and depressing and everyone seemed to have a veil over their eyes. And then Kushina heard those frightening words.

"Kushina, honey, we need to talk," her mother had said. Kushina knew that her world would change forever as she solemnly sat down.


	6. Chapter 6 : First C Rank Mission

Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto. If I did then Tobi wouldn't be Obito :'(

* * *

**The Land of Tea Arc - Chapter 6 : First C-Rank Mission**

Minato landed on a branch as he caught sight of the shining metal in the distance. He narrowed his eyes as his determination rose at finally spotting the target. There was slight tension in the air, coupled by the thick silence as he studied the target's movements. This was a mission and as a Konoha shinobi, He, He, will, not, fail. He raised his hand to the earpiece that allowed communication with his teammates and applied chakra, completing the link.

"I found the target," he said in a hushed tone.

"Distance?" he heard Mikoto reply back.

"Approximately 1 Kilometer."

"What should we do?" he heard Chonin say as the slightly annoying noise of crunching chips tickled his ear.

"Wait for my mark…And stop eating those chips!" she yelled with a whisper.

"Sorry."

They waited as complete silence made its way to the hunting ground. The three genin were watching. They were waiting for any kind of movement, ready to pounce like a lion waiting for its prey. Minato stood in a ready position as he readied his chakra for an explosion of speed from the branch.

Their target was fast and it was feisty. The slightest wrong mission could lead to failure…or much worse. Sweat threatened to form on the blonde's brow as he mentally shook it off. He wasn't going to get nervous. He wasn't. This was a mission and failure was not an option. He _had_ to succeed.

…And there it was. There were sounds of springs releasing and netted rope tangling the opponent followed by screams of persistent struggle. Minato pounced. He was like a panther pouncing on his prey. He arrived at the trap, followed by his teammates seconds later.

The prey struggled as much as it could but it soon gave up, finally giving into defeat. Minato grabbed the kunai, like a heartless mercenary as he _sliced_.

The pearls fell to the ground as Mikoto picked them up.

"I feel bad," Chonin replied, "He seemed to like that necklace a lot."

"Well it's our mission," Minato replied, slightly saddened himself.

The cat meowed and screeched as it clawed at the rope that kept it from its favorite play toy.

"You can't have it," Mikoto scolded, "This doesn't belong to you."

"Well mission completed, I guess," Chonin responded with little to no enthusiasm.

Mikoto sighed, "I'm sick of doing all of these D-ranks. We're ninja not chore boys."

"I agree," said Chonin.

"Well, it's to help team building and chemistry. It was set up by the second hokage to…"

"Ok smartass," Mikoto interrupted, not trying to listen to Minato's history lesson.

"Well what do we do with the cat?" Chonin asked while opening _another_ bag of chips.

"Bring it back to it's owner," Mikoto responded.

Minato nodded his head in agreement as he grabbed his kunai and cut the trap. He then looked in fear as the angry feline pounced on his head and cut his face like a scratching post.

* * *

Minato and his teammates sat at the waiting chairs outside of the mission briefing room after finishing. The mission was to retrieve the owner's favorite necklace from the cat burglar…literally. They now had to wait for their sensei to return.

"He sure is late," Chonin sighed.

"That idiot's probably peeking in the girls section of the hot springs," Mikoto said while raising a fist with fire in her eyes.

Minato and Chonin shared a glance as they both shivered.

Minato scratched the back of his head as he chuckled nervously. "Maybe he's doing some busy ninja stuff."

"I doubt it," she pouted, "He never even helping us out on our missions. He's always off doing 'research'."

They all glanced at the door as he briefly opened as a head popped out. It was none other than their sensei.

"You guys coming in?" he asked with bewilderment.

They all deadpanned as they palmed their face. They sighed as they walked in.

There was a huge table with several ninja and the hokage's advisors filled to the brim with stacks of papers. The hokage was in the middle. Minato smiled. He's been hokage for almost 15 years and started when he was 21, the man who was titled as the God of Shinobi and trained under Tobirama-sama himself. He was 38 now and stronger than ever.

Minato bowled respectfully, "Hokage-sama," he greeted.

The hokage smiled as he nodded, "I assume your mission was a success."

"Yes, these little rascals finished the job in record time," Jiraiya said braggingly.

"Without the help of you," Mikoto muttered under her breath as she folded her arms in a pout.

"I see," the hokage chuckled as he took a puff from his pipe, "So this is your third D-rank, am I correct?"

They nodded.

"Hmm," he rubbed his chin in thought, "Maybe you guys are ready for a C-rank."

He chuckled at the widened eyes of the three genin.

"You think you can handle it?" he added.

They nodded, seemingly lost for words.

"Oh they can handle it, alright!" Jiraiya bragged with a grin on his face.

Mikoto sweat dropped.

"Alright," the hokage continued, "I'm assigning you to a village in the Land of Tea. Your mission is to protect the client and his caravan as they bring an important herb to the Tea Daimyo. As you already know, this is a C-rank so you shouldn't have any trouble with enemy ninja."

"Who are we fighting?" Mikoto asked.

"Mostly bandits, thieves, or members of the rival family. They mostly have little to no combat specialty and should be no problem for such well trained genin."

Jiraiya blushed slightly at the comment.

Mikoto sighed. Great a C-rank already and she's the only one out of the three who can fight. At least she had a jonin sensei with her, no matter how idiotic he may seem.

"You can come in now," the hokage said.

The door opened revealing a middle-aged man coming through.

"This is the client," the hokage continued, "He will tell you the specifics of the mission."

"I'm Jibachi Wasabi of the Wasabi family. We are currently fighting with the Wagarashi family for ownership of the new Degarashi Port. We want to retrieve the Tea Daimyo's favorite herb to earn favor with him and increase our chances. Of course the Wagarashi family will try to attack us so we decided to hire ninja for the cause," he said.

"But what if they decided to hire ninja?" Mikoto asked.

"That's unlikely," he reassured, "They are extremely prideful and resent hired ninja."

"So when do we start?" Chonin asked.

Jibachi chuckled, "You guys sure are eager. We start tomorrow morning."

"Sensei, you better be prepared," Mikoto scolded.

"Jiraiya-san will not be accompanying you this mission," the hokage stated.

Mikoto's eyes widened and she looked like she was about to explode.

"WHAT!?" she screamed, "WHY NOT!?"

Jiraiya scratched the back of his head nervously as he chuckled, "I…uhm…have research to do."

Her face turned bright red as flames engulfed her eyes as she pumped her fist.

"Are you sure that's wise?" Jibachi asked the hokage, "I was kind of looking forward to having a Jonin accompanying us on the journey."

"Don't worry," the hokage reassured, "These genin are fully capable of handling bandits and thieves."

* * *

Minato sat in his room as he thought of what he should pack for his first C-rank mission. The enemies shouldn't be too much of a problem, but it's always better to be safe than sorry. He decided to pack some ninja wire and exploding tags for traps with 16 kunai to complement. He sighed as he picked up one of the kunai. He wished they were made to be more efficient close range. They would make more use.

He then stuffed the supplies in his back ninja pouch. He assumed that Chonin would bring extra food so they didn't really have to worry about that.

He reached over and grabbed two nearby seals that he constructed with the instructions from the Fuuinjutsu book he had. They were mostly storage scrolls but more portable. He attached sticky paper to the backs of them as he wrapped them around his wrist. They had several shuriken stored inside. All he had to do was apply chakra and he would instantly have one. It was pretty useful. He also had another pouch with several shuriken just in case.

After fully packing his ninja gear he decided that it was time to work on other stuff. He reached inside of his drawer and pulled out a notebook. He opened to the notes that he took from trying to construct a seal that allowed teleportation between time and space. He knew that Tobirama-sama was well-versed in Time/Space ninjutsu but there wasn't much information on how he did it. Minato basically had to start from scratch.

The closest jutsu that dealt with travelling between time/space was the summoning jutsu. It's a complex seal that allows the user to transport a specific summoning that they had a contract with and have it instantly appear on the battlefield. Minato guessed that it took a lot of time to construct for the person who originally created the technique and he definitely wished he could talk with that person. Now the seal is all configured and all ninja have to do is perform the hand seals, apply chakra, and imagine the characters that form the seal and boom. You have your summon.

But how would he be able to modify the seal so he could transport himself to a certain location? That was the hard part.

Minato decided to tuck it away and work on it later if they had down time.

* * *

The next day, Minato arrived at the village entrance meeting with the rest of his teammates. He wished Jiraiya-sensei was here. He wanted to ask him some questions about the summoning jutsu. He would just have to ask when they get back. Now they had to focus on the mission.

"I wish sensei was here," said Chonin.

"I can't believe he missed our first C-rank mission to go peek in the women's bath house," said Mikoto with a frown, "I don't know how he got to be such a legendary ninja. He seems pretty stupid to me."

"He's good when he wants to be," added Minato.

Mikoto just huffed as she crossed her arms in frustration.

Minato and the group then turned their attention to the client as he approached them with a warm smile.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Isn't there supposed to be a caravan or something?" Chonin asked, perplexed.

"Of course," he responded, "were going to meet them on Shakkaho Pass. I told them to wait there so we wouldn't have to have unnecessary travel."

"Where's Shakkaho Pass?" asked Mikoto.

"It's an intersection between roads, right in the middle of the Land of Tea and Konoha," added Minato.

Jibachi turned on his heels as he motioned for them to follow. They walked a little ways having small talk here and there as they made their way towards the caravan. The caravan was of average size. There were about 20 people in total there. They were all relaxing and talking amongst each other as Jibachi arrived.

"Alright people," announced Jibachi as everyone seemed to quiet down and listen to what he had to say. He seemed to have a lot of respect. "These ninja's are going to be accompanying us on the way back to the Land of Tea. They will be our official bodyguards and make sure that none of the Wagarashi family come and attack."

"These brats?" asked one of the members of the Wasabi family. He had red puff around his cheeks and a sake bottle in hand. He had the posture of a drunk, not to mention the smell too. "They can't be older than 12. You expect me to believe that they'll be able to protect us. Ha!"

Mikoto clenched her fist as she frowned.

"They are ninja from Konohagakure, you know," Jibachi said while chuckling nervously as he scratched the back of his head.

"Worthless," the man responded as he took another sip of his sake.

"Who are you calling worthless you old fart!?" Mikoto screamed as fire came to her eyes. Chonin held her back as she held her fist out, ready to fight.

Jibachi chuckled nervously again, "You'll have to ignore him. You know what alcohol does to a man."

"Whatever," Mikoto responded as she shook off Chonin. "You're lucky Chonin held me back."

"Anyways," Jibachi said half trying to change the subject, "We should get moving. So pack up your supplies and let's start heading out."

The people seemed to listen as they put their supplies back in the caravan and readied the horses. The women and children were mostly inside the caravan while the men guided the horses and stood outside.

"So how should we do this?" Chonin asked his teammates.

"We should form the Zuto Formation," suggested Minato.

"What's that?" asked Mikoto.

"It's where one person takes the left, another takes the right, and the last person watches the rear," Minato explained, "It's really good for three man squads."

"Alright," Mikoto responded, "Let's go with that. I just hope we don't meet any enemies."

"Our only opposition should be those Wagarashi people and bandits," said Chonin.

"_That's _not what I'm worried about," Mikoto sighed.

She was worried that if enemies would come, she would be the only one that could stop them. The only person that could _possibly_ help out was Chonin. His clan was really good offensively and if he had _any_ skill whatsoever than he could at least do something. Minato on the other hand didn't have any secret clan techniques or bloodline limits. The only thing he was good for was being a bookworm. Yeah he was smart and aced all of the exams but that could only get you so far in the ninja world. She hadn't been in any of his ninjutsu or taijutsu classes but she assumed that he wasn't proficient in either. She would have to carry this team seemed like, especially with a lazy, perverted sensei.

"What are you worried about then?" Minato asked, innocently.

Mikoto turned around as she rolled her eyes, "Don't worry about it."

Later on the three ninja fell in to position with Mikoto and Chonin taking the sides and Minato watching the rear. They walked a little ways as the team sent hand signals from time to time when they spotted something suspicious. It was mostly nothing but a rabbit running through the trees, but it was something to pass the time.

After a couple of hours dusk finally fell and the moon was starting to illuminate the dark sky. Jibachi motioned for the caravan to stop and walked toward the ninja.

"Were going to camp out here tonight," he said.

"That's fine," responded Mikoto, "My feet are tired anyways." She then sat down on a nearby tree stump as Minato and Chonin sat next to her.

"What should we do for the night shift?" Chonin asked.

"We should take shifts," Mikoto suggested, "That way we can keep watch at night and still have enough rest for tomorrow."

"Mmkay," Chonin agreed.

Mikoto tapped her chin as she seemed to ponder something. She then reached down and grabbed some sticks as she turned around as if she were hiding what she was doing from the others. Minato and Chonin exchanged glances. She then turned back around while she held out the sticks with her hand covering the lower half.

"We should draw lots on who goes first," she said, "Short end loses."

They agreed and reached out to grab a stick. They each observed theirs and compared sizes.

"Aww man!" Chonin whined as he noticed that his was indeed the short stick.

Mikoto stuck out her tongue, "Looks like your first shift."

Minato laughed.

"Well, looks like I'm going to relax," she said as she pulled out a sealing scroll. "You know what to do if you see anything suspicious." She then applied chakra to her palm as she slammed it down as a puff of smoke filled the area. Then she unrolled her summoned sleeping bag and went off to pick her spot to sleep.

Minato did the same as he pulled out his sleeping bag and pillow and proceeded to lie down. He then reached into his backpack and pulled out his notebook and flipped to the page.

Now to figure this mess out.

* * *

The Daimyo sipped his tea as he stared at the man in front of him. The man was dressed in an all black cloak with a white mask covering his face that looked like half of the yin-yang sign.

"You're finally here," the daimyo said, "I'm assuming that you plan to succeed in this mission."

"Of course," the man responded.

"I have to admit that I'm quite surprised that a ninja of your caliber will be taking this rather simplistic mission."

"I need the money," the man responded with little to no emotion in his voice.

"Very well. I always pay my clients well."

"I've heard."

"Alright then you have my permission. The Wasabi family shall be defeated." With that the ninja disappeared in a plume of smoke.

* * *

A/N : Well there's Chapter 6. I hope you guys enjoy xD

It was also brought to my attention that I messed up a bit with sticking to canon with Kushina. It would appear that she actually came to the village alone and she already had the nine tails in her...Oops :P

Oh well I hope you guys forgive me. If you see any other mishaps than feel free to point it out :)


	7. Chapter 7 : Protect the Caravan!

__Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto and I can't wait till Madara beats the living SHIT out of Naruto! But knowing Kishimoto Naruto will probably get the Rinnegan along with Super Saiyan 4 with Bankai and 11 Power Rangers by his side.

P.S. I really hope Naruto doesn't Talk no Jutsu Tobi, but the way the chapters look, it seems like a legit possibility. Can't we have at least one villan? :(

* * *

A/N : Envyyyy - No, the masked man is not Tobi or Obito. You'll have to figure it out but I wouldn't make him someone who wasn't even born yet, I'm not that dumb ;P

AllynDM - I'm glad you like my disclaimer I really didn't want Tobi to be Obito. Dang you kishimoto, why must it be the most simpleist choice _ And I'm discontinuing UAC unfortunately, I just ran out of ideas and it just became a chore to write. You could take it over if you'd like, but my creative juices have failed me for that fic.

bluepetrichor - I'm glad you like my story and I will try my best to continue this till the end. I'm having a lot of fun writing this.

Technogeek29 - It's not Madara :)

* * *

**The Land of Tea Arc - Chapter 7 : Defending the Caravan**

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"It's my mission. I'm a ninja of Konohagakure. I have to fulfill my duties as a shinobi."

"I understand that, but at the same time they're still kids."

"Whether their kids or not they're still ninja and we have to treat them as such."

"…I guess."

* * *

Morning came as bright sunshine illuminated the sky. Minato yawned as he rolled up his sleeping bag and put it back into the sealing scroll. He had a decent night sleep, for a ninja anyway. He had to wake up during the middle of it in order to do his shift but it wasn't that bad.

It was fairly early in the morning and most of the Wasabi family members were asleep. He decided that it would be better to wake his teammates up first. He walked towards the front of the caravan as he noticed Mikoto on top of one of the wagons. She had third shift so she kept watch till morning. Minato waved as Mikoto nodded to him. He then walked over to the right side as he saw Chonin sprawled out on the ground, half on his sleeping bag and half on the dirt floor. There were several chip crumbs dotted around his mouth with drool giving it moisture.

It was disgusting.

Minato gave Chonin a simple nudge and waited.

Nothing happened.

He gave him another nudge but harder this time.

Still nothing happened.

This time Minato bent down and grabbed his arm, which was super stiff, and tried to move it around in hopes that Chonin would respond to that and wake up.

A slight glimmer of hope appeared as Chonin moved a bit and shuffled around.

"Hey Chonin it's time to wake up," Minato said cheerfully.

Nothing. Chonin had moved a different position and stayed sound asleep.

Minato turned his head as he heard footsteps and saw Mikoto approaching. "I can't get him to wake up," said Minato.

"Don't worry, I'll handle this," Mikoto reassured, "I wake my uncle up all the time and he's a way harder sleeper."

Minato nodded as he let her have the seat.

Mikoto inhaled like she was trying to take all the air from the atmosphere. Minato plugged his ears as he waited for the explosion of sound that was about to ensue. He didn't want to wake the villagers just yet but with Mikoto, there was no stopping her.

"WAKE UP SLEEPY HEAD!" she yelled.

Even with his ears plugged Minato still had a huge migraine coming to the surface. Chonin bounced to his feat with absolute fear, terror, and confusion in his eyes as he frantically looked around. He looked as though someone had just bombed his home and Minato couldn't blame him.

It seemed that the rest of the caravan heard it too as long with the rest of the world. Minato felt bad for all those poor innocent family members who had to hear the onslaught of Mikoto Uchiha.

"Oh you guys woke up!" Mikoto said as she faced the groggy and grumpy family members.

"Yeah no thanks to you," one of them mumbled.

"Alright," said Jibachi as he rubbed his eyes and yawned, "I guess we should get moving."

Mikoto and Minato nodded as Chonin lazily approached them.

"You didn't have to yell so loud," he said.

"Well you didn't have to sleep like a rock either," Mikoto retorted.

"I can't help it," he responded.

"Well anyways," Minato interrupted, "We should get back into formation. They're starting to move."

"Alright," she sighed. She seemed to not like this mission. There was barely any action, just babysitting a whole family group. "Let's go Chonin."

Mikoto and Chonin took their positions towards the front of the caravan on both sides while Minato stayed at the back to watch the rear.

They walked a little while as they got closer and closer to the Land of Tea. If he estimated it right, they were about a half a day's distance away until they arrive. Things were running smoothly with absolutely no trouble. Too smoothly. They were supposed to meet opposition from the Wagarashi family by now. If they truly had a rivalry and fought over the Degarashi Port then shouldn't they take advantage of this opportunity? By giving the Tea Daimyo his favorite herb they would win favor with him and severely give him them the advantage. There should've been at least some opposition. This was strange.

Minato's ears perked as he rustling of in the trees and picked up feint chakra signals. Talk about timing.

Minato touched his two fingers to the ground as he poured his chakra around the area and tried to pinpoint those chakra signatures. The connection was fuzzy and he hadn't mastered this technique yet but it seemed as if there was one…two…three…

Oh no.

"Mikoto watch out!"

In an instant, with the most speed he could muster he appeared behind Mikoto as he pushed her out of the way of the Fuma Shuriken that grazed past her head. Mikoto hit her head against one of the rocks along the dirt road and passed out. There was chaos as the family members panicked and screams filled the area as they frantically rushed into the caravans.

"What's happening?" Jibachi asked as he ran up to Minato.

"Get in the caravan!" he yelled as he tried to spot the position of the person who threw that.

Those chakra signatures. They weren't loose and free like most civilians were. They were sharp and defined. They were powerful and definitely belonged to ninja of at least Chuunin rank…and there were five of them.

"Minato," Chonin called out as he rushed to where Minato was, "What's going on?"

"Grab Mikoto and get her to the caravan," he ordered, "We're under attack."

Chonin hesitated for a moment as if he questioned if he should listen to Minato or not. He decided that now was not the time for dispute and lifted Mikoto over his shoulders made his way for the caravan.

Just then out of the trees a ninja, dressed in all black, appeared and landed in front of Chonin with a kunai in hand. Chonin's eyes widened as his heart stopped and stomach fell. The ninja swung his kunai as Chonin closed his eyes ready for impact.

_Blocked._

He didn't know how but somehow Minato appeared in front of Chonin and had kicked the kunai out of the ninja's hands. Minato then swung his body, while still in mid air, kicked with his right foot. The enemy ninja seemed to be caught off guard by the Minato's sudden appearance and got by the attack. The kick had enough chakra infused in it to knock the ninja unconscious.

Two more ninja appeared as Chonin froze in his tracks, shaking and unable to move. Minato tapped the small storage seals on his wrist and applied chakra as he summoned to kunai to block the two ninja.

"Chonin _move_!" Minato yelled. Chonin seemed to snap out of his trance at the rare emotion emitting from Minato. Chonin nodded as sweat fell from his face and ran towards the caravan.

Minato backed up and jumped over the sweeping kick by one of the enemies. He then summoned some shuriken, three in each hand, and tossed them over at the ninja which they blocked easily. Minato didn't care as he used that mainly as a distraction while he led them away from the caravan.

He ran away from the caravan and as he predicted they followed. Two more ninja jumped from the trees as they surrounded Minato. He then pulled out a kunai as he studied his opponents. They were dressed in all black and had mask covering their faces. They weren't Anbu mask and they didn't seem to be related to any villages but from early confrontations, he can definitely tell that they are Chuunin rank.

One of the ninja decided to attack. Minato gripped his kunai harder with determination in his eyes as he readied himself. The ninja struck forward with his kunai as Minato sidestepped as he jumped in the area and did a spinning kick to his face. With insane speed he instantly pounced on the other ninja approaching and sent a roundhouse kick to his jaw. The ninja seemed to stumble as he reached into his pouch and pulled out a smoke bomb and threw directly at the ground.

Minato coughed as he jumped out of the smoke and waited for it to clear. He pulled out a kunai with an exploding tag attached and threw it near the smoke to help with the process. It exploded as the smoke instantly cleared. They weren't there.

Minato judged his options but ultimately decided to go back to the caravan and debrief with Chonin. Also, he needed to see how Mikoto was doing.

* * *

Her head pounded as if someone was living inside and slamming the exterior of her skull with a hammer. It was one of those migraines that just relentlessly pounded at one single point like a heartbeat. Mikoto sat up as she grabbed the side of her head while squinting her eyes at the pain as she noticed that she was in the caravan.

The last thing she knew before she passed out was a Fuma Shuriken flying past her head and someone pushing her out of the way. Had she hit her head afterwards? If so, then how? Everything else was fuzzy and she hadn't remembered how she got in the caravan in the first place or even what happened to the enemies that were attacking them. Did they retreat?

_Crap!_

What had happened to Minato and Chonin? She slapped herself causing more pain to her ever growing headache. She was the team leader and the one most capable of dealing with the threat and she had passed out. She looked around fervently as she desperately tried to find her teammates. She saw the mat she was lying on and a couple of children who were studying her, not knowing what this crazy lady was looking for.

"Have you seen my teammates?" she basically yelled at the kids as her desperation grew. Had the ninja taken them? Were her teammates held hostage, and if so, then was she supposed to save them and abandon the mission or stay with the mission and abandon her teammates? Maybe the kids would know where they were or anything that would give her a clue.

The kids blinked as they just stared at her blankly as if they hadn't even heard a question.

"Hello?!" Mikoto said, getting impatient.

They stared.

Mikoto grunted as she stormed out of the caravan to what she noticed was _moving_. Were they leaving without her teammates? She decided that she was going ask Jibachi even though the only interaction's they had was through client and ninja talk, he was still the only person out of the family present that she felt comfortable asking with the most informative answer. She found him near the front, by the horses, as she started to walk towards him.

"Oi, Mikoto! You're awake!"

A sigh of relief left her lips as she noticed the cheerful Chonin jump from the top of one of the caravan's. She noticed the bandage around his right arm.

"What happened to the ninja?" she asked.

"They retreated," Chonin responded.

Retreated? Someone hired ninja to attack their caravan and they retreated? "Was anything taken?" she asked precariously.

"No, not a thing. They tried to attack us but they were overwhelmed and just left," Chonin shared.

"They just left?"

"Mmhm," Chonin nodded.

They were overwhelmed? Mikoto's eyes widened as she looked at Chonin who looked completely different to her now. She then glanced over at the bandage on his arm again and saw the red bleeding through the cloth.

_There's no way._

Had Chonin actually held off those ninja by himself? Was he really that strong to make them retreat? She heard that the Akimichi had strong offensive capabilities but she always thought Chonin was a cowardly failure. Pink fluff started to form around her cheeks as she looked at a different Chonin, a powerful more dependent Chonin. Maybe she didn't have to carry this team on her own then. The only weak link would be Minato but with her and Chonin, they should be more than enough.

Oh yeah. "Where's Minato?" she asked.

"Oh, he stayed to see if you were okay and went to go pursuit the enemy to find out more information," Chonin responded.

Mikoto clenched her fist as her body temperature rose rapidly. "He did what!?" she said through gritted teeth.

"W-went to go find more information on the enemy," Chonin said as he backed away a bit and sweat dripped down his brow.

That idiot. That idiotic excuse for a ninja! What would he do that for? If the Wasabi family were carrying herbs to please the Tea Daimyo then those ninja had to be at least Chuunin rank if they were hired to attack. Did that bookworm actually think that he could fight them? That idiot should have waited until she woke up and Chonin's injury healed so they can plan this out like normal fucking ninja!

"U-uhm, Mikoto?" Chonin asked, unsure of how to approach her randomly placed anger.

"Come on!" Mikoto motioned as she angrily twirled around facing the forest on the sides of the road, "We're going to go find that idiot!"

Chonin watched as she marched toward the forest, "W-what about the caravan?"

She stopped in her tracks. She had forgotten about that, "Damnit," she said with an angry sigh, "Whatever, let that idiot die. We have to finish our mission."

It was harsh and she slightly felt bad for leaving one of her comrades out to die but she wasn't about to sacrifice the sake of the mission for one idiotic move her teammate made. He wasn't made out to be a ninja anyways. He should have become a librarian or something since he likes reading those boring books so much.

* * *

Bright light burned Minato's eyes as he fell of the branch and crash landed straight on his back. Breath escaped him as he formed a couple breathing exercises to compose himself as he waited for the blindness to subside. The enemy had thrown a flash bang while he was tailing them which worked due to Minato's carelessness. He should've known that they had something else up their sleeves. It shouldn't have been _that _easy to track them.

Sight slowly returned as he realized that he was in a small clearing in the forest. Two images started to form which he recognized as two of the five ninja that attacked them. He rubbed his eyes so he could get a better look. Minato stood up as he pulled out two kunai with exploding tags attached.

"Looks like the kid wants to fight," said one of them, mockingly.

"Ha! You only got lucky back there kid. Are orders weren't to fight you but to give you little genin a little scare," the other one added.

"Orders?" Minato asked. Maybe he could get some information from these two. "Who do you get your orders from?"

"From the boss."

"Who is your boss?"

"Like we're going to tell a brat like you."

Looks like they weren't going to talk. Minato gripped his kunai as he tossed at the feet of the ninja. They easily jumped out of the way of the blast. Minato then applied chakra to the wrist summons as shuriken appeared in his hands.

_One of them has a burnt mark on their left leg._

Minato tossed the shuriken at the airborne ninja as they both pulled out kunai's and blocked them consecutively.

"Nice try brat, but you're gonna need to try better tricks to beat us," one said.

"Hah! I guess that's the most these petty genin can do," the other added with a chuckle.

"Heh, now it's our turn."

Minato readied his stance as he prepared for an attack and glanced back and forth between the both of them to see which one would attack first.

Minato _ducked_.

He barely had time to blink before the ninja appeared right in front of his face forming a sweeping leg kick. The ninja continued on with multiple punches and kicks that were almost faster than Minato's eyes could keep up. He was relying mostly on instinct as he found that his counter blocks were just barely slower than the ninja's attacks. Minato tapped his wrist summons as he summoned a shuriken and shot it towards the man's face. The ninja swayed back as the shuriken barely grazed his mask. Minato used that opportunity to gain distance from the ninja as he did several flips backwards.

In between one of his flips, he saw several green seeds fly over his head. There was a feint hint of chakra radiating from the seeds as he recognized it coming from the enemy, but which one?

Chakra spiked as the seeds hit the ground, instantly forming vines that threatened to wrap around Minato's body. Minato was about to jump out of the way before he saw the other ninja instantly appear in front of him with kick coming his way. Minato brought up his arms to block as the vines wrapped around them and pulled them to the side. The vines then wrapped around the rest of his body forming a tight hold as the ninja kicked with chakra in his foot which spiked like a blade.

Minato's head came off its hinges as it puffed into smoke. What was left was a piece of log in the vines and another piece splintered off to the side.

Minato took a deep breath as he landed on a branch near the forest that surrounded the small clearing.

From the way these two ninja work together it would seem that they were part of a team or worked with each other for an extensive period of time. One of the ninja had insane speed and most likely infused chakra in his muscles to attain it. He also seemed to have exceptional chakra control seeing as he manipulated the chakra in his foot to a single point forming a blade. Engaging him in a close range fight would be dangerous. The other ninja seemed to be the one controlling the vines. Those seeds had chakra infused into them and seemed to react to the user's chakra. It wouldn't be farfetched for him to be able to manipulate the shapes too.

Hmm…_Got it_.

Minato summoned shuriken to his hands as he threw it towards the speedy ninja.

The ninja jumped out of the way.

Minato then came crashing down as he ran towards him with kunai in hand.

"Hah!" he laughed, "You genin never learn. Engaging me in taijutsu means the end of you, kid."

Seeds flew at Minato's feet as vines sprouted and spread around his body as the other ninja ran forward with his chakra forming a blade around his hand.

The ninja's hand went through Minato's heart as he coughed up the blood from his lungs.

"Got you," the ninja said in a smirky way.

Minato smiled as he puffed into smoke. The ninja's body language just read surprise as ninja wire twirled around him and kept him in place in a tight hold. His teammate reached into his pouch to take out more seeds as he noticed the small glint of iron around his neck.

The ninja gulped.

"H-how?"

"Those shuriken I threw from the trees had ninja wire attached to it. I noticed in our first skirmish that your teammate had incredible speed and focused mainly on taijutsu. You seemed to be mainly used as support, seeing how you stayed in the back most of the time and used your jutsu to capture me. I analyzed that your main form of attack was capturing your opponent with those vines of yours and having your teammate end it. You had long range attacks while he was mostly close range, so I used the ninja wire to restrain him while using a Kage Bushin to distract you while I snuck up from behind," Minato revealed. It was always better to tell your opponents how you beat them because it added a little fear factor when they faced you the next time.

"Being defeated by a mere genin," spat the ninja trapped in the wire, "You're an exceptional ninja, but you haven't captured us yet."

Minato's eyes widened. Did they have something else up their sleeves? At the last minute Minato felt a spike of chakra coming from the trees. Backup? Minato jumped back as he dodged the barrage of shuriken and kunai. Two smoke pellets exploded on the ground as it covered the two ninja.

_Crap!_

Minato performed hand signs as he opened his mouth and took a deep breath. "Wind Release: Gust Wind."

The wind traveled to the smoke and completely dissipated. He sighed as he saw the ninja wire spread out on the ground and the two ninja gone.

He didn't have enough chakra to fight all of them and decided to just go back. He had trailed them and left an injured Chonin and an unconscious Mikoto alone with the caravan and he had _failed_. He sighed. He needed to make better decisions next time.

* * *

Mikoto sighed as she looked downwards at her feet dragging the dirt from underneath. She really hoped that idiot was okay. Was it really okay to leave him? She didn't really know him and they had just been assigned on a team but he was still a teammate. Was it really okay to let a teammate die for the sake of a mission?

"Hey Mikoto!"

Her heart stopped.

"M-minato?" she asked precariously as her eyes widened.

"Hey," Minato repeated with a smile.

It took her a moment to dispel the disbelief of Minato actually being here. Was this some kind of sick joke that someone was playing on her. She was sure that he was going to die out there.

"Is that really you?" she asked.

Minato looked surprised as he raised one eyebrow questioningly, "Yeah?"

Did they let him go?

"What happened out there?" she asked with sympathy and relief in her eyes, something that Minato hasn't seen before. A sensitive Mikoto?

"I was trailing the ninja and I ran into some of them. I fought them to try to retrieve some information but reinforcements came before I could ask them anything."

Wait, he fought them and _they_ retreated. Mikoto shook her head of the thought. They must have been simple bandits or thieves playing with ninja gear. That would explain how Chonin held them off. Maybe he wasn't as strong as she thought. She still had to give the Akimichi some respect though. She wouldn't have guessed that he would be able to hold off _all_ of the bandits by himself.

"How many did you fight?" she asked looking at the scar on his right shoulder.

"Just two of them," he said, "They seem to have a boss they needed to report too, so they decided to retreat."

All sympathy left her eyes as she returned to normal Mikoto and sighed. This idiot really _is_ weak. Fighting only two bandits and coming out of it injured was pretty pathetic for a ninja. Hopefully that idiot of a sensei would teach him a thing or two or he will hold the team down, or just convince him to quit with his petty dream of being a ninja, much less, a hokage. He didn't deserve to be a ninja.

"All right," she sighed, "Let's just get back to position. We're almost to the Land of Tea."

"Mmkay," Minato responded as he turned to leave.

"Oh and make sure you get that shoulder fixed up. Some of the family members are medics."

Minato nodded as he did just that.

* * *

"Boss we're back," said one of the two ninja that arrived.

"So how'd it go, Shiburo?" the boss with the yin-yang sign asked.

"The other two genin were easily defeated but one in particular was quite something," Shiburo responded.

"Gave us a run for our money," added Abura.

"He had blond hair and was quite exceptional. We fought him with the intent to kill but he defeated us with relative ease."

"A genin?" the boss asked.

"A strong one," Abura stated, "You should be careful. He might even give _you _some trouble."

The boss chuckled, "Don't be ridiculous. I _am _one of the legendary Sannin, you know."

"Yeah, but I'm still not sure why you're interested in them. Don't you have any other Sannin related jobs you could do? I mean this is Chuunin work at best."

The boss licked his lips as he smiled, "I want to test these little brats."

* * *

A/N : This is a relatively quick update for me :) I hope to upload like this more often or maybe even quicker! Anyways I hope you like the story and I'll see you next time.


	8. Chapter 8 : When the Chips Are Down

Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto. Flashback is finally over and now for the epic fight, Madara vs Naruto and Obito vs Kakashi. Can't wait! :D

* * *

bluepetrichor - You will see some character flaws latter on when shit hits the fan ;) *cough* *cough* war *cough* *cough*

The Supreme - Now that I look back, I have made Mikoto kinda of bitchy. I will try to soften her out in later chapters.

rexie-unicorn - Glad you like it :D

* * *

**The Land of Tea Arc - Chapter 8 : When the Chips Are Down...**

The rustling noise of the caravan came to a halt as Jibachi motioned for the people to come out. It was daylight and the bright sun beamed over the many houses in the compact village. It had an orange tint preparing for it to set.

Minato plummeted to a nearby rock as he let out a huge breath. It had been about six hours and no matter how much his body was conditioned to stand for long periods of time, this was a little much.

He looked to his left finding Mikoto and Chonin who were near passed out by the tree. It seemed they were in the same boat he was. A ninja's work definitely wasn't easy and it was good to have a little bit of rest time now and then, a small break from it all.

But there was more.

Much more.

"Think we should see Jibachi?"

And there it was the dreaded question they all were thinking but couldn't ask. At least Mikoto took the first step.

A hefty sigh left Chonin's lips, "Maybe," he said slightly annoyed.

There was a pause. They all knew what they had to do next but neither one wanted to get up. Not after six hours of walking.

It was Minato's turn to sigh. He half wanted to make a shadow clone and have it walk over to the caravan but he knew that the fatigue would bounce back and he would be worse off than before. Besides, he probably didn't have the chakra.

Stamina and Chakra worked hand in hand.

There was a grunt and rustling noises as Mikoto lazily made her way up.

"I'll go," she muttered, "You guys stay."

Minato and Chonin shared a look. Did Mikoto just offer to do something nice?

She then started walking whilst dragging her feet against dirt road.

The caravan wasn't far from where they rested; she just didn't feel like walking at all. After six hours that was the last thing she wanted to do right now.

She found Jibachi near one of the caravans pulling out a blue coated container. She guessed the herb was contained in there. It was pretty box with all kinds of unique assortments. She didn't know why they were doing all of this for a little herb. Was it that important?

"You moving out?" she asked.

He jumped a bit at the sudden voice from behind as he chuckled noticing Mikoto.

"Ah yes," he said, smiling, "We're about to deliver the herb right now."

Mikoto let out a small sigh, "Alright."

"Minato! Chonin!" she yelled with what little energy she had left. "They'll catch up."

"I'll lead the way," added Jibachi as he strutted forward.

It took a while for them to catch up but they managed a walked a little ways till they finally arrived at the Tea Daimyo's estate. It was definitely odd seeing a noble living in such a small, modest home. It was bigger than the average person's home, but it was definitely lacking when compared to other nobles.

A sigh of relief, "Here we are," Mikoto announced.

"Finally," Chonin huffed.

"Are you sure the Wagarashi family wanted to stop you?" Minato asked.

Jibachi tapped his chin seemingly pondering this. "I thought we would see at least some opposition. Maybe they hired the ninja we fought earlier."

"I wouldn't put it past them," Mikoto added.

"_Umm…guys_?"

"It just seems odd. There usually very prideful about their work. I didn't think they would hire ninja," Jibachi said.

"_guys_…"

"Oh, well. It's not like it matters. I'm pretty sure they were bandits anyways."

"_damn it_."

"Bandits huh? They had ninja gea…"

"WATCH OUT!"

A large fuma shuriken gazed past Jibachi's head as Chonin tackled him out of the way.

"We're under attack!" Chonin yelled in panic.

Minato pulled out a kunai as Mikoto followed whilst stepping in front. They both looked up and saw the Tea Daimyo on top of the building with another ninja next to him. He was fairly tall and dressed in all black with a yin-yang styled mask hiding his face. To the left and the right of them were two other ninja with similar mask.

"What's the meaning of this?!" Jibachi asked, desperation and fear in his voice, "We brought the herb, just like you asked!"

"Idiot." A simple response coming from the man so revered in the Land of Tea. He was stoic and had an emotionless face as he turned around towards the door leading to the inside of the balcony. He turned to the man in the mask. "Kill them."

"W-what?"

The man in the mask nodded towards the two ninja at the side as they instantly jumped down with shuriken in hand.

"Minato! Take Jibachi and get out of here!" Mikoto said, "Me and Chonin will handle things here."

Minato nodded as he threw his kunai at the two men as cover fire while grabbing the shocked Jibachi and ran.

The two ninja landed in front of them in a standoff position.

"Shit, why did you tell Minato to leave?" Chonin asked. There was no stomping the shaking fear running through his body. "There's no way we can beat these guys. We don't have the chakra."

"What's having him here going to do? Besides, we needed someone to protect the client!"

"Damnit," was all Chonin could mutter before the ninja pounced.

* * *

Minato ran with Jibachi and the three other men that accompanied them as they made their way to the woods.

"You think they'll be okay?" Jibachi asked once they stopped a safe distance away.

"They'll have to be," he responded, "Right now I have to protect you."

"We'll be fine," he looked to the other men accompanying him before smiling, "For a couple of old geezers like us, we can handle ourselves pretty well."

The other men nodded.

Minato's eyes widened, "Are you sure?"

"Of course," Jibachi smiled.

Minato took off in an instant. The last thing he wanted to do was abandon his teammates.

* * *

Her back slammed against a cart taking away what little breath she had left, saliva spewing out as she collapsed to the floor. Her breathing was muffled and inconsistent every breath was like forcing a frog out her throat. Her chest burned and every part of her body ached. Moving was like stabbing a hundred needles into each one of her tendons.

Her gaze shifted to the right. Chonin was in no better position.

No.

He was worse.

His body was sprawled out on the dirt path with numerous bruises and cuts. Consciousness had already left him as blood trickled from the left part of his skull which could very well be fractured. From the kick he received earlier to the abdomen there could be ruptured ribs.

She heard footsteps approaching.

They were slow and methodical; each step he took she felt more and more like a criminal facing her death penalty. Beads of sweat dripped down her brow as she clutched the dirt at her feet and clenched her fist in a tight grasp.

There was this inescapable fear that wouldn't leave. A fear that made her shake without even realizing.

_Thud. Thud. Thud._

Each step was _crippling_. Each step stabbed at her heart.

Her courage was gone and all she wanted to do was go into a corner and cry. She wanted this to end.

This was supposed to be _easy_.

A simple mission.

Their first C-ranked. Just a practice run.

You know, to prepare for the tougher runs.

_Just a practice run_. It was never supposed to be life or death. It was never supposed to be like _this._

_Thud._

The footsteps stopped and tears streamed down her cheeks and trickled to the ground.

Her family_._ Her friends.

_Uncle Tsunayoshi, a joke that was never funny but always made us laugh. Granny Taka-jii, the best senbei you could ever taste, sweet and savory whilst tickling your taste buds itching for more and old man Yama, insurmountable wisdom and just the right bedtime stories to put you to sleep._

Her family.

Ruff hands grabbed her collar and forced her up as she dangled inches above ground staring at a mask that shielded her adversaries face.

_A family she didn't want to lose._

Eyes focused with newfound determination as she slapped the ruff hands that held her up whilst dropping to the ground. She jumped back to gain distance as she pulled out a kunai from the holder.

Her last one.

She studied her opponent. His movements were slow, but articulate, a walk that created pits in her stomach and caused her whole body to shake. Fear was running rampant through every fiber of her body. The shaking wouldn't stop.

_A family she had to return too._

She shook away the fear and charged head on. She felt power. She felt strength. It was focus. It was in her eyes, a power that she couldn't quite comprehend, but a power nonetheless.

It was there.

She could feel it.

Her opponent's movements were sharper now, more predictable, _easily readable._

A slight muscle tension and she knew what was coming next. A swing from the right…

…she dodged.

This was it, the moment where she could end it all.

She pointed the kunai towards the man's throat and…

* * *

Minato scaled the trees as he tried to conserve chakra by making the jumps _legit._ It was harder than he thought. He was never heavily reliant on chakra usage and tried to condition his body for these types of moments, but he never expected these trees to be _so far apart_.

There was no time to complain, however, he was on a time limit.

Chonin's chakra signature was feint but it was still there. Mikoto's had a surge of power but quickly dissipated afterward.

And then there was that ever constant chakra that he felt since arriving at the Land of Tea.

It was strong. It was powerful. It was refined.

He had to…

Minato almost fell as the kunai skimmed past his face.

Jumping from the tree and landing to the ground, he instantly made his way to the source.

Finally arriving out of the woods, he stopped as he met face to face with the masked figure.

He stood over top an unconscious Mikoto with another kunai in hand.

He stood tall and very stoic in nature as he turned to face the blond.

Minato pulled out a kunai from the holster and readied it as his eyes focused and his body readied. He had low chakra and fighting this guy was near impossible, but there was no giving up now. He had to win, no matter what.

_He had to protect his friends._

* * *

__A/N : Okay, I feel like I owe you guys an apology. This is another long update and a short chapter.

I've just been really busy with college stuff coupled with my laziness and procratination, making this chapter come out much later then I intended.

But anyways, hope you like the chapter. I hope to update sooner and have a good day :)


	9. Chapter 9 : Until Our Last Breath

**The Land of Tea Arc - Chapter 9 : Until Our Last Breath**

With his chakra almost depleted and his breath escaping him with every step Minato felt like he could collapse at any minute. Beads of sweat dripped down his furrowed brow as he used every ounce of his energy to escape from his opponent. His chest felt immense pressure and he could've sworn that he felt the sour taste of blood lick his tongue. He tried desperately to focus on his footsteps, one by one making sure they had the correct distance to take a stride. He felt like he could tumble at any minute and that would be the end.

He unconsciously took a quick glance behind him as he saw the menacing, stoic adversary gaining distance on him. At this rate he would catch up and it would all be over. _Over_. Minato shook the fear of losing out of his system, he couldn't give up now. He had to think. Even in this situation, he had to think of a way to save Chonin and Mikoto and escape. He had to distract his attention somehow. But how?

All he could see was a quick blur of blackened clothes and a large metallic object almost as big as himself coming like a locomotive. He instantly reacted, applying chakra to his feet and narrowly dodging the attack. There was a man who looked similar in stature to the men side by side the Tea Daimyo at his house with their boss. He had a large hammer that caused a decent sized fissure in the ground which no doubt would've killed him.

A foot came into view from the left of him. He hesitated to use chakra to avoid so he reacted by pulling up his guard. The man's attack felt like a boulder just crashed into his arm as he tumbled to the ground. He pushed against the ground with his arms, struggling to get up as he instantly collapsed to his right side. He gasped in pain as he clutched on to his left arm. Ignoring the sting of pain he felt noticing that his arm was dislocated at the elbow..._Great._

He managed to shift his body around and scoot himself with his rear end and his right arm to a tree to support his back. He glanced up and squinted at the pain in his arm as he looked at the three masked shinobi surrounding him. _If only he had more chakra._

"Why are you doing this?" he managed to mutter between exasperated breaths, "Our mission was to bodyguard the Wasabi family until they got to the Land of Tea. There here now, our mission is done. You have no business with us."

The man in the middle, the boss, the man with the yin-yang sign on his mask stepped forward. Minato could see that he was hiding his chakra but he could still sense a slight chakra source radiating from him. It was familiar somehow, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"You misunderstand," the man spoke. He had a deep, misplaced voice. It was obviously different then how he would normally talk outside of a mission. Minato could see that. This person was definitely hiding something, but he couldn't wrap his finger around it. The man continued, "Our mission wasn't to stop the Wasabi family," he pulled out a kunai which sparkled under the bright sun, "It was to kill you."

Minato felt his stomach drop and a huge lump in his throat as beads of sweat dripped down his troubled face. He tried his hardest not to show emotion on the battlefield, but his eyes must of shown unbeknownst terror. He angled his feet against the ground as he pushed against the tree maintaining his balance as he forced himself up. He reached into his pouch as he pulled out a kunai and got into a defensive stance. His eyes lowered into a more focused glare as his mind raced through hundreds of ideas on how to get out of this mess.

There was no way he would lose this fight, not if he wanted to be Hokage someday.

He tossed the kunai at the boss who easily deflected it with his bare hand. Minato quickly reached into his pouch and pulled out a smoke pellet and released it onto the ground causing purplish gas to fill the immediate area. He used a boost of chakra to initiate momentum and started running in the direction that he left Mikoto and Chonin. He glanced back and noticed that they were still in the smoke. Minato dropped down a few tags as he ran which would explode at contact. He just hoped that this was a good enough distraction.

_It wasn't._

He caught a glimpse of two ninja coming in aerially, one with the huge hammer and the other one with his leg drawing towards him. Minato dived forward as the area he was once at was utterly decimated by the two's attacks. He landed right on his broken arm and cried out in pain. He used his right arm and barely managed to propel himself up. He turned around and saw the ninja walking over and he could almost sense death's door coming for his soul. His heart pounded faster than usual and beads of sweat started to resurface.

This _can't _be it. _It can't be. _He had dreams, he had goals, he had ambitions. He wanted to be a shinobi, he wanted to be a strong ninja that could protect the village, he wanted to be Hokage someday. This was his first _real _mission, he _can't _die now.

His mom, his dad, his family, his village, Kushina, he didn't want to leave them now…Wait. Why'd he think of Kushina?

Minato blinked and missed it. He was _distracted. _The ninja were gone and were now on each side of him readying there attacks for the finishing blow. Minato closed his eyes ready to face his death. There was literally nothing he could do right now, he was gonna _die._

_Dad, Mom, I know you wanted me to become a strong ninja. I failed…I'm sorry._

Minato prepared for the final blow he breathed out a sigh with despair in his eyes as the attacks drew closer and closer and…stopped? Minato heard the clanging of metal to the right of him and rustling noises to the left of him. He glanced to the right and couldn't believe what he saw. To the right of him Jibachi and one of his men were holding back the giant hammer with their katanas and to the left two other of his men that Minato saw at the caravan were holding off the remaining ninja.

"Ji-Jibachi," he managed to mutter.

Jibachi turned to him while struggling with the hammer they were trying to hold back. He smiled, "Don't worry Minato, go save your friends. We got your back."

Minato didn't want to leave this up to civilians especially with these shinobi which would put their lives at risk, but he didn't have many other options. He nodded his head and went forward.

_He had to save his friends._

* * *

Arriving near the Tea Daimyo's house, Minato made sure that no was there. He knew that Jibachi and his crew wouldn't be able hold off the ninja for long, especially ninja of their caliber. There was also the man with the ying-yang mask. Jibachi and his crew only dealt with the subordinates, the boss could still be after him. He knew he had to be fast, but with a broken arm and having to carry Mikoto and Chonin by himself was going to take some work. He wasn't going to give up though; he had to take care of his nakama no matter what. That was his duty as a friend.

Minato found Chonin and Mikoto still passed out in the same spot they were taken out in. He just hoped they were okay. He only knew first aid and knew next to nothing about medical ninjutsu, like he even had the chakra to even think about the possibility. This whole fight they were on almost empty chakra reserves. He knew he would fare better if he actually had chakra to use.

He walked over to Mikoto first and nudged her a bit to see if she was awake. She was still unconscious. He positioned her body so that equal amount of weight was on each side of his arm as he threw her over his shoulder. He instantly collapsed. Mikoto was slim in nature, but carrying a human being was still tough especially with only one arm and limited chakra/stamina. He sat on the ground with an unconscious Mikoto on his lap as he breathed out a sigh. What was he to do? He didn't have any time for this. He glanced over at Chonin and deadpanned, he didn't want to say the 'f-word' but Chonin was definitely…heavy.

His options were very limited and he knew that the solution that he came up with would leave him unconscious or even _kill him_, but he was out of time and had to act quickly. With a quick exhaling breath he crossed his finger into a seal and just hoped that this jutsu would last long enough to help him evade.

"Kage Bushin no Jutsu," he muttered and instantly a puff of smoke revealed an exact copy of himself to the right of him. He nodded to the Bushin as it managed to put Chonin over its shoulders, albeit with much difficulty. Minato did the same with Mikoto. He just hoped his small chakra would last him until he reached a safe distance.

* * *

It had been about 10 minutes of traveling when Minato reached the edge of the town and entered a small wooded area. He spotted a small cave about 20 meters from their original position. He sighed. He was running on _pure_ will power now. The weight of Mikoto on his back coupled with the almost empty chakra reserve, he felt he could collapse at any moment now. He stared at his blood stained shirt were he initially coughed into. He coughed up blood multiple times during this escape. His lungs could give out on him any moment now. He really didn't want to die on this mission, especially from chakra exhaustion but there was nothing else he could do. He had to save Mikoto and Chonin, no matter what. If he died doing that then he would hold no regrets. He just had to go a few minutes more and reach that cave. _Just a little bit more_ and it would be alright to _rest_.

It took a couple minutes to arrive there, especially with the slow speed at which he was traveling at. Every step was like taking a steel knife and plunging it into his lunges. He reached the inside and his clone instantly dispersed, he was at his limit. Chonin fell to the ground belly first with a huge thud. Minato winced. _Sorry Chonin, _he thought with a pained smile. He then set Mikoto down and instantly collapsed.

He hoped he wouldn't die, but if he did at least he died protecting his friends. He lost his grip on consciousness and allowed himself to rest.

* * *

Jibachi collapsed onto the rock swaying his arm in a circular motion to ease his joints. He sighed as he picked up his shattered sword.

"This was an antique, you know," he said as he set it down carelessly onto the ground.

One of the men with the mask walked over and examined the broken metal that he caused with his hammer. "Sorry," he said as he removed his mask. He had short spiky brown hair and dark brown eyes to compliment. The shining metal on his forehead had the signature symbol for Konohagakure embedded in it. He also sat down. "I didn't want to blow my cover. I can buy you a new one if you'd like."

"It's fine," Jibachi said with a sigh, "Besides this old thing probably isn't sold anywhere around here."

The ninja's partner sat down next to him as he removed his mask. He had shoulder length silver blue hair and also silver blue eyes to compliment. His forehead was also covered by his village's ensign. "I hope we didn't hurt you guys. Takamaru over there tends to overdue it a bit sometimes," he sent a teasing smile his partner's way.

His partner scoffed, "_You_ tend to overdo it, Kishiro. Not me."

Jibachi chuckled, "No where fine. We might not be in the same shape as you people, but we can manage. I'm more worried about the kids. You think there okay?"

Kishiro scratched the back of his head in an unknowing gesture. "I sure hope so. I think we _both_ overdid it a little. I mean there only genin."

"It's the boss's orders," Takamaru responded.

"I guess." Kishiro let his gaze shift upward as if expecting something. "Why don't you let up on them, Jiraiya?"

A man jumped down from the trees startling Jibachi in his crew. He then reached for his mask, etched with the ying-yang sign and slid it off his face. His spiky shoulder-length silver hair was let loose and his large signature smile was etched on his face. "My students are strong, they can handle this! They _are_ students of the legendary Sannin aren't they?"

"Don't you think we did a bit too much?" asked Takamaru, "You saw how exhausted they were."

"They could die you know," added Kishiro.

Jiraiya took a more serious glare and stared off into the distance. He knew that his students were pushed to their very limits. It was _possible_ that they could die from being pushed this much, but if they couldn't get past this adversity then there's no way they could survive in the war they were going to embark on soon. As much as he hated it, it was necessary to develop their potential to the best of their ability and prepare them for what's to come. That was his duty as their sensei.

* * *

Mikoto shrugged off the drowsiness that came from waking up from a deep sleep. She looked around noticing that she was in a small cave opening and saw Minato and Chonin asleep next to her in the most awkward positions, as if they were just _dropped_ there. But they were in a cave…and seemingly safe. Where were the enemy ninja? How did they get into a cave? A million questions popped to in her but she pushed them aside. They were safe somehow and she had replenished chakra, she had to keep lookout in case the ninja came again. She had to protect Chonin and Mikoto. If she had to guess, though, Chonin must've woken up and took Minato and her to this cave. She keeps underestimating him, but the Akimichi sure did have some potential. If he could reach his potential then maybe they wouldn't have such a useless team after all. She just had to convince somebody to trade for Minato. He hasn't done anything this whole mission.

She got herself up and dusted the dirt off of her clothes. She reached the entrance to the cave glancing left and right before exiting. She had to check if they were completely _safe_ or not. First she had to set up traps. That was one of the things in the academy that she excelled in.

After a half an hour of gathering wood for supplies and using the last of their combined ninja gear she made a few well-made traps, if she could say so herself, around the area. She then took some paper she saw stashed away in Minato's notebook. She couldn't help but slap herself. The boy obviously doesn't want to be on a mission. It's their first C-rank and he decided to draw during it. She sighed. She really needed to ask for that trade, especially before the war comes. She then took some leftover exploding tags and used them as makeshift tape and strapped them to the paper which she attached to the cave walls. She then used the pen in Minato's pouch and warned them not to exit. It would be terrible if _they_ got caught in the traps. She then set out.

She didn't go far from the cave, just enough so she could train in peace. If they were going to survive this mess she had to become stronger, plus she wanted to test out her _new ability._ She looked around for a bit and saw a nearby puddle. She wanted to see this in action. She walked over to the puddle, kneeling down so she could see her reflection. She looked a mess. She closed her eyes and formed a standard ram seal to garner chakra. She let the chakra ooze through her body like a waterfall or a river flowing through each one of her veins. It was a soothing feeling, it was cold and chilling and empowering. She let the chakra flow throughout her body while directing it like a director directing an orchestra. The chakra filled near her eye sockets and with a sudden burst she released all she could and the chakra in her eyes felt _amazing_. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at her reflection and couldn't help but smile. She saw the Uchiha's signature bloodline in _her eyes_. She couldn't believe it. She thought it would be years before she unlocked the sharingan, but now she had it and she is ready to kick some ass.

She stood up from the ground and felt like a million bucks. She was definitely going to get stronger than that Fugaku idiot. She only had one tomoe in each eye but with enough practice and time using it she could be great.

* * *

Chonin's body ached in almost every place imaginable. He found himself face down on the dirt with his rear pointed upward and dry drool planted on the side of his lip. Sweating bullets, he quickly glanced around hoping no one saw him in this ridiculous position. He placed his hand on the side of his face and wiped the excess dirt on to the ground while feeling the imprint it had on his cheek. He then dealt with the drool with some good old fashion "spit shine" and made his made his way up.

He found that he was in a cave opening and saw Minato collapsed on the ground and Mikoto nowhere to be found. He scratched his head, clueless of how he got there in the first place. Last thing he remembered he got knocked out by the enemy leaving Mikoto to fight him.

…

_Mikoto!_ He had to find her. He quickly got his ninja gear, not bothering to check the contents but noticed that it was unusually light. He decided to ignore it and made his way to the exit, he stopped before he left. There was something at the corner of his eye… He slowly, meticulously turned his head to the left and his face paled as he set his eyes on_ two_ explosive tags attached to the wall!

Panicking he jumped over a rock tripped over his own ankles mid-air and collapsed onto his belly. He clutched his abdomen as he yelped in pain. He instantly got up however, wanting to save them from being blown to smithereens. He started to run but stubbed his toe against another sharp rock and wretched backwards as 'man tears' started to form in his eye sockets. Hoping on one foot he grabbed the other and furiously blew at his swollen stubbed toe. As the pain slowly receded he sat on the rock and breathed a sigh of relief, like that feeling you get when you have to pee _really_ bad and finally let loose.

He then realized that he didn't eliminate the threat yet and panicking once more he got up and banged his _heel_ this time against the rock. He cried out in pain and out of instinct tried to pull his heel up to his mouth so he can 'blow the pain away' again. Failing miserably he collapsed onto the ground once more and out of frustration he tore a rock from where it was implanted in the ground and threw it against the wall…nowhere near the exploding tags. He sighed as he lay on his back. He felt a tingling sensation around his arm and instinctively shivered as he jumped from the ground and looked down to see nothing there. He let out another sigh of frustration but felt the tingling on his arm again. He slammed his left hand against his arm and caught the cause of the unease and set it before his eyes. It took awhile before it set in, but before his very eyes he saw a living, breathing _scorpion_ in his hands. Being deafly afraid of anything that moves and _isn't_ human he instantly dropped it and squealed emitting a luminous high pitched sound reminiscent of a three year old girl. He frantically looked around trying to look for someone to hide behind but noticed that he was the only one there.

Deciding to face his fears he meticulously approached the monstrosity set before him and attempted to kick at it with his foot but flinched as it got within range of its claws. He then looked to the left and picked up a small stone and decided to kill the beast with that. He slowly approached as beads of sweat fell down his brow. While clenching his eyes shut he slammed the rock against the scorpion's small frame and relentlessly beat it until it was clear that the disgusting _thing_ was utterly destroyed. He opened one eye to take a peek and breathed a sigh of relief seeing it completely dead.

He glanced around and remembered that he was the only one in the cave at the moment, besides Minato who was unconscious. He then started his victory dance which lasted a full 20 seconds before his happiness wore off. With a smile on his face he sat down and relaxed.

A couple seconds later he realized his true mission and glanced at the exploding tags on the walls. He instantly got up and while stumbling a bit, he finally reached the tags and crinkled them up so they would have little to no use. He let the sheet of paper that was attached to them fall to the cave floor as he _finally_ got rid of the threat.

...

_Mikoto!_ He totally forgot about her. She could still be in enemy hands. He instantly rushed out of the cave and tripped over a wire just outside of the entrance. He questioned why the wire was there but decided that his first priority was Mikoto. He stood up and judged to area trying to figure out which way to go first. He turned his head, hearing a whirling noise and noticed a humongous log tied to a rope swinging towards his location. He ducked and if he had been a millisecond too late he was sure that his head would've come off. He waited a bit for the log to lose its swinging momentum before he got up. He wondered why there was a trap outside of the cave and started to think that maybe they were being kept by the enemy. He didn't want to think of that, however, his main priority was to find Mikoto. But which direction should he start his search? He decided to go with his gut instinct and go to the right.

* * *

Mikoto slumped to the ground as beads of sweat dripped down her face. She felt like she just ran for 5 hours. She had practiced and was able to sustain her one tomoe sharingan for a total of 5 minutes, but now she was completely drained.

She heard small rustling noises to the left of her near overgrown bushes and instantly pulled out a kunai in a defensive stance. A bead of sweat dripped down her face. She wasn't ready for this. Maybe training in the middle of a mission wasn't the best idea. She had almost no chakra and _someone_ was coming, she could sense it.

She clutched the kunai harder until her knuckles turned white as she heard the noises coming closer. She hoped to Kami that it was just an animal. Please be an animal. Please be an animal. Please be an anim…

Out of the bushes a footstep appeared and as soon as she saw the blue sandals and black shorts she sighed and put away the kunai. She didn't know if she was relieved or frustrated. She thought she told the buffoon to stay in the cave.

Chonin struggled a bit before he untangled himself from the numerous sticks that prickled him in the bushes. As he made his way out he picked out various twigs and leaves from his now uneven hair and breathed a sigh of relief. He was so _clumsy._ He looked up and instantly reeled back at the sight. It was…it was…

"Mikoto!" he yelled as he ran forward sumo style and gave her the biggest bear hug she could get.

An unwanted smile crept across her face. She didn't know why she was unexpectantly happy; maybe it was the fact that after all this Chonin, her teammate was safe.

She squirmed in Chonin's grasp which actually hurt and caused her already ached body unnecessary pain. "…Chonin," she managed to mutter under the gasp, "Y-you can let go now…"

Instantly realizing what she meant he let go and ungraciously dropped her to the ground. "…Sorry," he said with a smile as he wiped the droplets of tears in his eyes. "I was just so happy to see you."

Mikoto was taken aback from the tears and couldn't help but smile again. "No worries," she said cheerfully, "Were both safe, we'll get out of here. I promise."

With sniffles and the continuous motion of wiping his tears with his arm sleeve he nodded in confirmation. "Yes, we'll _all_ get back."

"Yep, all three…of…us. Wait you idiot!" she yelled as she returned to her normal self, "Where's Minato?!"

"Oh! Shoot!" Chonin slapped himself, "I left him back at the cave."

"You idiot! He could be endanger! Let's go back."

* * *

A/N : Hey all! I'm finally back from my momentary hiatus. I have become really busy over the past couple months so I couldn't start work on this chapter as soon as I'd like. I don't know when the next chapter will be out so bare with me, I tried to make this chapter longer than usual(4,500 words :D) so enjoy :)


	10. Chapter 10: Believe in Yourself

**The Land of Tea Arc - Chapter 10: Believe in Yourself!**

Jiraiya, donning the mask he got from Wave, bent down in the small cave opening while checking Minato's slow but steady pulse. The boy was collapsed face down on the rugged dirt, unconscious but still breathing, _alive_ but needed medical attention immediately. His chakra reserves were dangerously low, very close to empty, but he was still hanging on a thin thread.

The boy had really pushed himself to his limits. At first glance the boy was a gentle child who would wail over the death of a fly but this boy had guts, _shinobi_ guts. He had skills and battle instincts at Chuunin level and he was straight out of the academy. You only see that level of talent in clan members who were trained in the arts since they were born. From the records, his family had little to no ninja history. A normal average family with a normal average boy, except this boy was something more. He had _guts_ and that's something that not many ninja of today have.

Jiraiya turned the blonde on his back as he gently lifted him in his arms. His first priority was getting his student some medical help, next was dealing with the _others._

Walking out of the cave entrance he ignored the wiring near his feet and dodged the oncoming kunai without a second thought, almost subconsciously. With a chakra induced jump he landed on top of the opening making his way east to the direction of the town.

The swishing noises of chakra induced landing sounded behind him and whilst hating every minute of it he rolled his eyes, sighed, set down Minato _gently_, and turned to meet the rest of his students to finish what he was here for.

There was anger in their eyes, anger and determination, the determination of _shinobi_. A smile crept against Jiraiya's lips; this is exactly what he was looking for.

Mikoto held her kunai in a threatening position, "Give us back, Minato," she growled.

A pause.

"Take him from me," Jiraiya responded.

With that Mikoto charged at the masked man with kunai in hand and red, blazing sharingan illuminating her eyes. Jiraiya waited for her to approach, he was done with her testing, the only one left and the one he had to test next was Chonin.

Mikoto lunged forward and Jiraiya simply sidestepped as he gave her a good thrust to the back of the neck, effectively knocking her out.

She slumped to the ground in a disheveled mess. Chonin's eyes turned from determination to anger as his smooth tan skin turned a bright red as he charged. Jiraiya sighed at his approach which was full of holes and openings to exploit. This one definitely needed some fine tuning if this was all he could do.

Chonin swung multiple uncoordinated fists at the masked man who dodged each one with relative ease. The more he missed the more angry Chonin got and in turn, the more sloppy his attacks were. Jiraiya took a step back and as Chonin approached he meet a well placed kick to the abdomen, knocking the air out of his lunges as he lay on the ground wheezing and struggling for breath.

"You're worse than the rest," Jiraiya said watching the student struggle to get up and maintain balance with nothing but angry frustration written on his face.

Chonin charged again meeting a fist this time, being sent back almost as quick as he came. Getting up again, being determined to rescue his friends who were lying unconscious from protecting him, he charged a third time. Jiraiya side stepped his punch and placed a knee in his gut with enough force to send him airborne a couple of feet and finished with a vertical chop sending him crashing to the ground meeting a mouthful of dirt.

Still determined to fight, Chonin forced his way up, spitting out the contents that filled his mouth, he sent another wild punch the masked man's way. Jiraiya caught the punch, bent his wrist backwards causing a shriek of pain, pulled Chonin forward, and placed a kick to his jaw line sending his student flying back.

"You're weak," said Jiraiya watching the Akimichi struggle to stand, "I thought Taijutsu was the Akimichi's specialty. I guess I was wrong."

Chonin stood up, wiping the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. His breathing was irregular as his body was shaking with anger. He wanted to win. He _wanted _to win…but no matter what he threw at him it was all countered. If only his brother Choza was here. If only Minato were awake, or even Mikoto. If only Jiraiya-sensei were here. Someone. _Someone_ to help him beat this guy and save his friends _someone._

By now he was used to pain from the numerous punches and kicks he was getting so he had no problem charging in again. Jiraiya dodged another reckless strike and countered with a well placed kick to the chest sending him flying _again._ He really wanted to see what Chonin was capable of, how he would use his clan techniques but it was almost as if he didn't know any. Chonin charged again as Jiraiya back stepped away from the punch and swiped his foot knocking Chonin's feet from under him. He then drove down with an elbow sending him to the ground.

Chonin scrambled on the ground clutching his stomach and gasping for any air to enter his lungs. He scrambled up still holding his stomach and threw a horrendously desperate punch that might've been dodged by a 5 year old. The masked man blocked with one hand, lifted him up and tossed him back, sending Chonin sprawling against the floor.

"It seems you're the weak link of this team," the masked man taunted.

Chonin managed to stand, still with as much anger as he started with. If anything else you had to admire the man's will power. "S-shut up," he responded, "I'll beat you."

"You shouldn't say things you don't believe yourself. You _can't _beat me, nor do you want to," Jiraiya said, he had to set it straight right here. "You're not trying at all, your just trying to draw this out long enough for someone to save you."

As Jiraiya predicted this unnerved the genin. "You're lying," he spat, "I want to save my friends!"

"And how might you go about doing that. I've been beating you in taijutsu alone, mediocre taijutsu at that, which coincidently is the Akimichi's specialty. Manipulating your body calories and body structure to strike down your opponent with pure size and power, a very deadly technique indeed and I have yet to see any of that from you. Why is that?" he begged the question, "I'll tell you why. You don't intend to beat me or much less even fight me. You want to run away, you want someone else to save you and take you away from this predicament."

"Shut up."

"You're afraid."

"I said shut up!" Chonin yelled this time.

This peeked Jiraiya's interest a bit. The boy was actually slowly but surely growing a back bone. This was definitely a good start.

"I'm not afraid!" Chonin continued, "I'll definitely beat you."

Collapsing his hands together in a ram seal, Chonin spread out in a chakra gathering stance as a decent amount of chakra swirled around his body. His intense emotions coupled with his Akimichi level chakra reserves called for enough power to disrupt the air as intense winds filled the immediate area.

Jiraiya looked on through his disguise with widened eyes. The chakra was amazing; maybe the boy had potential after all. He had to see what he'd do with it first before making judgment.

Expanding the area around his torso to a large bulbous ball shape which was almost twice the size of the masked ninja he tucked his hands inside the confines and prepared for one of the Akimichi's signature techniques. One that he hadn't mastered yet, failing multiple times in the process of learning, and seemingly unbeknownst to him he _did it._

Not letting his surprise get to him he regained his focus and propelled his body forward using chakra as momentum. Speeding toward the enemy, faster than he could ever imagine he could just _feel _his victory at hand. This was it; he wasn't running away anymore, he was going to beat this guy.

Jiraiya looked on as he watched Chonin's Human Bullet Tank rolling _incredibly slow_! At this rate a 6 year old kid can out run this thing. He sighed. Oh well, it was a start. It was definitely an improvement.

After gathering chakra into his fist he struck dead in the center effectively knocking the boy unconscious.

Taking off his mask beads of sweat dripped down his face. It was extremely hot wearing that thing all day and he was glad to take it off. Now to take these brats to the hospital.

* * *

A massive headache met him as he sat up blocking his eyes from the bright sunshine illuminating the room. He used his free hand to study the soft, thin bed sheets that were covering him and the loose cloth covering his body. Poking one eye out it widened.

He was…

…in a hospital?

He looked around the room and noticed three empty chairs spread out around his bed. Were there people here?

People…

_Crap!_

Jumping from his bed he frantically looked around out of principle and instantly started to wonder where the rest of his teammates were. The last thing he remembered was collapsing in that cave. Hopefully they were okay, hopefully they didn't get captured by the enemy.

Running towards the door he opened it and to his surprise noticed Jiraiya standing in the way with his trademark grin on his face.

"J-Jiraiya-sensei?" he questioned.

"Don't worry," Jiraiya responded, "Mikoto and Chonin are okay. They're out training."

"T-training?" They were training? What happened to the masked man? What happened to the mission? What happened _here_? "Why are they training?" he mustered to ask.

Jiraiya's grin grew even larger (if that was possible). "For the chuunin exams of course! You guys are students of the great Jiraiya, you have to be at your peak and make your master look good!"

"The chuunin exams?" Minato asked, "How long has it been?"

"Since you passed out? About 3 weeks."

"Three wee-"

"Yes, but I'll answer your questions later. Right now I have to sign you guys up."

And with a puff of smoke, he was gone.

The Chuunin exams…things were definitely moving fast.

* * *

**A/N : I'm afraid that I'm losing interest in this story so I might have to put it on hiatus, I don't know. Sorry for the long update again, hopefully I'll gain interest in this story again.**


	11. Chapter 11: The Start

**Chuunin Exams Arc - Chapter 11: The Start**

The Chuunin Exams. Minato looked over the sign-up sheet as he walked the streets of Konoha on his way home from the hospital. The paper was well decorated, vibrant colorful words at the top titled "Chuunin Exams" with "_Ready to be a real ninja and help protect this beautiful village?"_ right underneath. The rest were questions leaving space to fill out his name, ninja registration number, etc, etc, all the details. Based off of what he heard, _all _Genin were participating, and was mandatory to attend…_War_ was next.

Noticing the distinct whistling sound of thrown kunai, he turned around and jumped back looking up at the source. Tilting his head to the side, scratching the back of his head questioningly, he noticed Tsume Inazuka, same class as he was, standing on a tree branch, her trademark grin spread about her face and wolf-like pup, as always, by her side.

She lifted a finger towards him, "Minato Namikaze. I came to challenge you!"

"Challenge?" Minato questioned, "You mean spar? I'm not really in the mood to…"

He jumped out of the way of the multitudes of shuriken coming his direction. He looked up, noticing condensed chakra rippling through the air surrounding the two, _loose, stern, chaotic._

"Ready Kuromaru!" she exclaimed, "Let's go!"

In a plume of smoke the dog transformed into her master, mimicking her exact stance, both were beast-like, with sharper teeth and nails, and a sense of ferociousness coming from each of them. Minato summoned a few shuriken to his hand with the summoning scrolls on his wrist as they jumped off the branch, ready for combat. He didn't want to fight, but apparently he didn't have a choice.

He threw his shuriken at his opponents who were now mid air, which did nothing but bounce off of their momentum, spinning with an intense velocity making them appear as human power drills as they split, left and right, going at both sides of him. Jumping in the air and with finesse aerial movement he summoned more shuriken to his hand and tossed them at both, 4 each. The opponents, again, powered through them.

"Is that all you got, golden boy!" Tsume taunted.

Minato dropped to the ground, just missing the combined onslaught of the two, only to see them coming at him again in an instant. Instead of dodging this time Minato stood his ground, waiting for the opportune moment.

"I guess we overestimated our opponent, Kuromaru." Tsume laughed, "Let's finish him."

Coming from both sides once more, Minato pulled at the ninja string that he attached to the shuriken earlier, collapsing his hands together. The Inazuka pair stopped instantly, dead in their tracks as they collapsed to the ground, the power drill-like forms gone, and only them remained, entrapped and tangled in the near invisible ninja wire that he ensnared them in.

Tsume struggled, with Kuromaru, as they attempted and failed to break free. After a few seconds, she gave, clenched her teeth and glared towards Minato, before looking away in embarrassment. "What are you doing here?" she spat, frustrated.

A kunai, sparkling in the sunlight, held inches away from his throat. Minato gulped as he glanced to the side behind him noticing the pure white eyes of the Hyuuga Clan behind him.

"I…" he started, attempting to explain himself.

The kunai was brought back, Minato turned around to see him fully. Hizashi Hyuuga, same team as Tsume as well as Shibi Aburame. One of the strongest genin of his class. He had long black hair which reached the middle of his back and tied a few inches above the end in a loose ponytail. His clothing was clad in more traditional Hyūga-like robes: a white shirt with loose sleeves, closed on the right shoulder, with a fastener running down the right part of the chest, matching pants, with a dark navy grey apron tied around his waist and black shinobi sandals adorning his feet.

"Minato Namikaze," he said, "Top marks in all areas of our class and noted to be one of the top tier students in the academy."

Rustling leaves sounding to the left of him as he turned to the tree Tsume attacked him from to see their third teammate appear, Shibi Aburame from the Aburame clan. He was a fair-skinned ninja with abnormally tall height for his age, dark bushy brown hair and dark, narrow eyes. He wore the same style of clothing as the rest of his clan, consisting of dark sunglasses and light brown jacket with a high, upturned collar and a sea-green gourd adorning his back.

Shibi's hand was outstretched with a couple fingers pointed loosely in Minato's direction, beckoning for something to reach it. One by one little Kikaichu bugs flew seemingly randomly multi-directionally out of Minato's clothing. Minato, frantically looking left and right, wondering how and when those bugs got on him, he looked up noticing that they all, although a small bunch, probably about 10 bugs max, gathered to Shibi's hand and crawling, creepily, inside his sleeve, making Minato quiver.

"It's a pain," he began, "Why? Because Tsume wanted to test your skills."

Looking over to his left to where Tsume was he noticed Hizashi untying her from the rope, with a look of angered embarrassment on her face. "I would have gotten out of here," she said.

"Yeah, yeah," responded the Hyuuga as he finished and motioned them to leave. "Sensei wants us back by 3. We're late."

Tsume reluctantly obliged as she took off with Kuromaru followed by Shibi Aburame. Hizashi watched his teammate's dash off as he turned his head towards Minato. "Tsume is cocky and arrogant and tends to underestimate her opponents. Don't assume our team is weak after defeating only one of us. Our team is not to be taken likely and if we cross path during these Chuunin exams, we won't be the ones going home. Remember that." With that he jumped to the next tree and dashed off after the rest of his team.

Minato sighed, scratching the back of his head. There was some serious competition this time around.

* * *

Finishing the daunting paperwork that filled his desk, he pushed them to the side and glanced at his attendant who, noticing, nodded and stood in front of his desk ready for orders.

"I want you to dispatch the fourth squadron to Yamon Pass to back up the eight squadron reconnaissance team against the Amegakure forces. Send the order by messenger eagle," he said.

"Yes sir," she nodded in response, leaving the room to do so.

The door, being left open, slowly closing, came to a halt as a foot stopped its momentum.

"Come in," he said.

The new comer walked in with standard ninja gear with black under clothes and green vest on top. With the Konohagakure symbol plated on the upper left. He stood in front of his leader with a sly grin planted on his face, with a sense of confidence and non-worry.

"Yes, Sandaime Raikage?" he asked.

"Do you remember your mission?" the massive, dark skinned Raikage responded.

"Retrieve and Capture the nine-tailed demon fox," he said with a menacing chuckle, "We already made preparations to get there, Raikage-sama."

"Good. This will turn the tides of the war."

* * *

Large amounts of food contents spraying in the faces of the helpless victims as they watched their gluttonous friend, Choza, devouring the dinner bought for them by their sensei. Dan Kato sighed, pushing away the small piece of apple pie drenched in spit and saliva. He took a glance at his other students, watching Inoichi and Shikaku also hand their plates to Choza, not wanting to run their mouths with mouth wash when they got home.

Five minutes later, after watching a tower of plates standing on the table, almost everyone in the restaurant gave a sigh of relief.

Dan chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head, "Was it good?" he asked, something to ease the awkward moment.

Choza exhaled with a smile as he lay back patting his slightly oversized stomach. "It was delicious."

"We can tell," responded Shikaku sarcastically while glancing the other direction.

"Those everyone in your brother eats as much as you?" asked Inoichi.

Choza tilted his head placing his hand on his chin, pondering the question. "He doesn't eat as much as everyone else in the clan. He only eats 5 times a day, probably why he's so weak."

Five times a day? Everyone at the table gawked at that number, and that's supposed to be a little bit? Inoichi sighed, rubbing his growing headache, "Why is everyone in your clan so fat?" he muttered.

Thick silence entered the room as all eyes drifted to their location. Everyone knew the mistake he made and Inoichi as well. He chuckled nervously profusely apologizing, but making no progress. Choza had rejuvenated energy and pure anger in his eyes as he stood up. Inoichi was on the opposite side of the table with their sensei, while Shikaku was next to Choza. Inoichi glanced at Shikaku who sighed as he readied his jutsu.

"What did you call me!?" Choza yelled. In an instant his arm doubled in size and slammed against table causing it and everything on it to shatter and break.

"Choza!" Dan yelled trying to get his student to calm down.

Shikaku jumped back, forming his shadow possession and instantly binding his furious teammate. Sweat dripped down his brow at the struggle of keeping Choza in place…his chakra was outstanding, probably why he was the strongest on the team, _by far_.

It took awhile before Choza was calmed and Dan sent him a frustrated glare as he had to take more money out of his check book to pay for the damages of the table and the dishes that followed. Choza apologized but Dan was still slightly frustrated at the amount of money he spent today. He sighed as glared into the bright sunlit sky through the small glass window. He's going to have his handful with this team.

A white dove flew past his view, circling the window a few times before landing on the window sill. Dan instantly knew what this meant as he nodded and as the dove flew away.

"What was that Dan-sensei?" asked Inoichi.

"Just a message," he responded.

The Chuunin Exams, huh? Interesting…

* * *

Walking back from the Hokage tower after their mission, Sakumo Hatake and his students decided to take a rest on the wooden bench. Sakumo rest his back putting his leg over the other and his hands over his head in a comforted position.

"How come Kushina never does missions with us anymore?" Yashiro asked.

"I was wondering that as well," Hiashi said.

"Well," Sakumo started, wondering how to answer this, "She has important responsibilities she has to attend to with her clan."

"Like what?" asked the Uchiha.

Sakumo smiled sending a wink, "Top secret."

He laughed as he watched Yashiro pout at the non-answer he received, Hiashi seemed indifferent. Staring up into the sky, relaxed smile implanted on his face, he noticed the white dove hovering over their area. His smile grew.

Well this is going to be interesting.

* * *

Kushina clutched her stomach, tears streaming down her face, staring at the simple markings sealing the most demonic and sinister beast in the entire world. A beast that could destroy a country with a single attack, a beast that held nine tails and taking the image of a fox, an evil beast and it was sealed in _her_. She stared outside the window watching the dim sun slowly descend amongst the trees, wandering why everything in the world went against her, as if karma itself held up a middle finger and said "fuck you". Everything was going wrong, ever since she left her village and her friends, ever since she reached this stupid village that was supposed to protect her and her family, everything went downhill and there was nothing she could do about it.

The caravan came to a halt as members of her clan, which essentially served as body guards to her father, the clan head, escorted her out the door. Stepping outside the caravan she noticed a huge wealthy home, which was near the outskirts of Konoha. It had a beautiful fountain, with a cute little carved bird at the tip and a garden that made shame to all others. There was a cement walkway leading to the main doors which were a painted wood with two lion heads as the door headers. Kushina walked steadily and nervously as the guards motioned her forward.

The door opened with a small creak and Kushina's eyes met the most beautiful house a person could ever see. The floors were a rich tan color, a ceiling with a beautiful mosaic fan, wealthy furniture, and an equally fanciful staircase.

Being led up the stairs, Kushina followed as they reached the top floor which felt like forever to reach. She then walked down the long hallway, gitters filling her body as nervousness ensued. The guards stopped at a double doored room and stood at both sides of it, hands crossed over their waist, which was probably her cue to enter.

Taking a few breaths, preparing for her big meet, Kushina pushed open the doors and her stomach dropped instantly. She expected this, she knew who she was going to meet, but after meeting the lady herself, her aged skin and soft eyes, reddish gray hair, and a smile that read warmth and comfort, her nerves took the best of her. This was the legend of the Uzumaki Clan, a living relic, and a person that everyone in her clan loved and revered who few would meet. Here she was, standing right in front of her, Kushina gulped.

_**This was Mito Uzumaki!**_

* * *

The jonin screamed in agony as thousands of purplish parasites infected his skin. Not one was visible to the human eye but thousands as a unit made it look like the victim had purple skin in color. He screamed with his hand reaching out in pain as he sprawled against the ground screaming and squirming, his voice becoming raspy as the insects made their way from the mid section of his body towards his neck and legs. Giving up he clenched his eyes tight trying to absorb the pain, he painfully turned his head to the source of the bugs.

"T-to think that I would be beaten by mere genin," he said through pain. He smiled, a painful smile, "I guess it was to be expected from students of one of the legendary sannin."

Orochimaru looked over the jonin, smiling as he licked his lips. He placed his hand on both his student's shoulders. With the exception of the small area around the nose and mouth, Shikuro Aburame's features were mostly covered in a mask, with glasses built in hiding his eyes and unlike other Aburame's, Shikuro wore an all black outfit instead of white with a red slash around his waist.

"Shikuro," Orochimaru said, "Retrieve your pets. We need to take the Kumo jonin in for questioning."

Shikuro nodded, he was a man with little words after all, he pulled of his black gloves with his teeth revealing similar purplish skin that didn't seem to have the same painful affect as they did on his victim. He walked over, bent down, placing a couple fingers on the jonin, slowly, the parasitic bugs seemed to converge back towards the owner as the once purplish skin of the victim started to regain color again.

Mostly paralyzed from the pain, the Kumo jonin stayed in place as Orochimaru picked him up and pointed him to Fugaku. Fugaku Uchiha activated his sharingan and placed him in a C-ranked genjutsu, knocking the man unconscious.

"Y-you guys are strong," said Nawaki Senju, staring in absolute astonishment.

"Yeah, and you're weak," Fugaku responded stoically, "You hold us back."

Nawaki clenched his fist, turning a bright red, "You think you're all tough! You just wait until I kick your ass in the Chuunin exams. You…"

He was interrupted as Orochimaru threw the body on top of him, as he collapsed to the ground. "You carry him, since you had the least to contribute this mission," the Sannin ordered.

Nawaki sighed as he reluctantly agreed. He had training to do and fast if he ever wanted to catch up to _these _two. They took down a freaking Jonin for god's sake! Are they truly genin?

* * *

**A/N: Another long time between updates :P I don't know when I'm going to upload next, so I apologize ahead a time. I almost just scrapped this story but I got a butt ton more followers and all the awesome reviews inspired me to keep going with this story. I have some big plans for this story ahead of time so look out for that. Plus the war arc, coming up next, is going to be FREAKING EPIC! I'm not going to say much, but just imagine all the strongest shinobi of this time period in one huge battle. Shit is going to hit the fan!**

**Stay tuned xD**


	12. Chapter 12: The Ignition

**Chuunin Exams Arc - Chapter 12: The Ignition**

The sound of the rain pattering filled the area with dark clouds hovering in the sky. The trees on the outskirts of the lake were wet and barren with an excess of mud covering the dirt underneath.

Hanzo stood on top of Ibuse, tall and arms folded, with confidence he stared at the beast looking over them; same size as the mountain beside it. The Seven Tails, the only tailed beast without an owner and the third strongest amongst them. For the first time in history, Amegakure was going to have its own nuclear weapon and finally be on equal terms to the four greats.

"It's not attacking," noted Takigame, Hanzo's right hand and the strongest in Ame besides Hanzo himself.

"It's watching us," Hanzo responded, "Waiting to see what we'd do."

"Interesting…" Takigame added, watching on with added interest.

"Prepare the Uzumaki," he ordered, "We'll start now."

"As you wish." Bowing, he turned on his heel and left.

Hanzo waited a few minutes watching the beast, watching its every move. The beast was far, not in speaking distance for any human, but enough for the monstrosity to be seen. The beast looked down at Hanzo, continuing their staring contest before it decided to attack.

Still flying, it flapped its humongous wings blowing massive wind like a fierce storm rippling through the air. Hanzo stayed perched on top of his summon using chakra to keep his footing. The beast opened its mouth forming massive intense chakra, dense and heavy. Little purplish and blue spheres formulated around it as a small darkened ball started to take form; The Bijuudama.

It was Hanzo's time to move. Forming hand signs, fast as lightning, as he stood perched on top of Ibuse, he pointed his open palms towards the cloudy sky, instantly stopping the rain. The beast looked confused, stopping its attack for just a second, just enough for Hanzo to take advantage.

Bringing down his arms with force an incredibly large formation of water, the sum cumulative of the water formed in the sky in the shape of a raging tiger smashing into the beasts' back, crying out in pain it misfired its attack releasing it in an upward trajectory dooming it to explode several kilometers away from their location.

"NOW!" Hanzo screamed.

With that, large chains, glowing with bright yellow chakra shot into the air wrapping around the Bijuu, slowly draining its massive chakra as it squeezed and squirmed trying to free itself but failing. The small group of Uzumaki walked forward surrounding the lake with Ame-nin beside them, keeping them in line.

Takigame returned with the leader of the faction with chakra bound cuffs keeping his hands tied around his back. He stood next to Hanzo with a ram seal, freeing the Uzumaki as the cuffs collapsed to the ground. Miburo Uzumaki rubbed his wrist getting comfortable with using his hands again after hours of having them restrained.

"He's here," Takigame said shoving the middle aged Uzumaki forward.

"Start the seal," Hanzo ordered.

Takigame nodded, nudging Miburo forward as he reluctantly prepped his seal formation with unique Uzumaki hand signs. After walking forward a bit he sat in front to the lake facing the bijuu, closing his eyes and meditating as the rest of the Uzumaki took the signal and followed. A large seal formed on the ground surrounding the bijuu in a circular pattern, as it illuminated, glowing a bright red. Two Ame-nin walked forward with a large darkened box with the Uzumaki clan ensign on it with multiple seals covering the exterior. They placed the box directly in front of Miburo and left he scene.

Hanzo bit his thumb as he pulled out a scroll and applied his blood sacrifice. Seals formed around his palm forming a small purplish glow around them. Jumping off of Ibuse he ran toward the beast, struggling under the chains and with a single leap he slammed his hand into the bijuu's torso as the seals spread around it's body in a distinct pattern.

The two Ame-nin brought forth two more elderly Uzumaki as they formed hand seals and placed lit small candles that were placed around the four corners. They then sat on both sides mumbling an enchantment.

"We're ready," they confirmed.

The two Ame-nin walked over and pried open the box as all seals in the area glowed with bright illumination, the light from the box pointing in the direction of the Seven Tails. The beast shape and form started to distort, slowing being pulled into the small dimensional space inside of the box.

Once in, the ninja closed the box as the elderly Uzumaki resealed it shut.

Once finished, Hanzo and Takigame made their way over to it.

"Looks like a success," Takigame said.

"Our job's not over yet," Hanzo responded, "Get all the best genjutsu users in our forces. We have one more job, before we're finished. Make sure not to mess this up."

"Right. But what should we do with the Uzumaki?" he asked.

Miburo walked over, sweat dripping from his brow. "W-what about us?"

"Kill them," Hanzo ordered picking up the box.

Miburo stood in disbelief, mouth agape. "B-but," he stuttered before anger washed over him, "We did everything you asked of us! YOU SAID YOU'D LET US GO!"

In an instant, before you could blink, Hanzo dropped the box, clutching the lead Uzumaki's throat…hard.

Hanzo stared into his fearful eyes as Miburo looked back. Hanzo the Salamander, a ruthful killer, eye's full of blood and murder.

"And when do you say have I broke my promise?" Hanzo asked, "Are you questioning my honor?"

"B-but…" Miburo struggled.

"You may leave as you please," he said dropping him, "But we never said we won't pursue."

Takigame smirked, pulling out his sword, "As ruthless as ever."

And then the slaughter began, screams of fear and anguish filling the air.

"The Uzumaki are a dangerous group. The world's better off without them," Hanzo muttered.

* * *

"Be careful," Chiyo said to her son and daughter-in-law outside the camp.

Niteru was reorganizing his puppets, making sure all the contraptions were working and functional. "Don't worry," he said, grunting after forcibly connection two pieces together. After succeeding he looked to her and gave a confident, good-guy, smirk. "We're not as weak as to fall down to those Konoha dogs."

Sasami walked up to her mother, giving her a warm huge and smile, "Don't worry about us," she said, "You and Father are needed at the council. The Puppet Corps will do just fine. We were trained by the great Chiyo Satasaki after all."

Chiyo rolled her eyes as she chuckled, "Just make sure you come back alive. Don't forget, you have a baby waiting for you at home. "

"We will," Niteru smiled, finishing his tweaking and sealing his puppets in the sealing scrolls. "We plan on retiring when this whole war thing is over anyways."

Sasami walked over and hugged her, before giving him a kiss on the cheek. "To raise our little Sasori," she said cheerfully.

Chiyo couldn't help but smile. Sasori's going to grow up to be a great kid under these two.

* * *

Ignoring the few odd looks and snide comments towards her hair, Kushina made her way for her daily visit to the Ramen Shop. Sitting down after having idle chatter with Sanji whilst teasing Teuchi, she finally received her beautiful, magnificent bowl of ramen and began her meal.

"I'm going to be a Chunin. What do you think about that?" she teased.

"As if," Teuchi responded, folding his hands into a pout, "I bet you'll fail."

Clenching her teeth, Kushina was going to respond with her traditional mean spirited threat and anger filled insult, but she was interrupted.

"I think she'll do fine," said a new voice.

Kushina whipped her head to the left towards the newcomer, Teuchi equally startled by his sudden appearance, as the newcomer sat down on the stool next to her.

"Uhm…Do I know y…"

Kushina paused, taking a look at the newcomer as he turned to her and smiled. Her heart started rapidly, her body felt warmer, and her palms were unusually moist.

He was cute.

He had golden blond hair, deep blue hair, and fair tan skin. He was fairly tall and his smile…_god his smile_. Her heart rate increased, her hand unconsciously moving to her hair, secretly wishing she had wore a cap today.

"W-who are you?" Kushina asked, stuttering on every single word known to man. God! Why did she have to be so awkward!?

"Oh, I'm Sintoku Miyomoshi," he introduced cheerfully, holding out a hand as Kushina shook it. It was soft. "I'm participating in the Chunin Exams this year. I heard you were too. I'm guessing it's your first time?"

"No…er..yes, I mean…uhm…y-yeah," she fumbled, smiling nervously while cursing herself for being SO AWKWARD! To make matters worse, she noticed a chuckling Teuchi, holding his hands over his mouth acting like this was the funniest thing known to man. She gave him a ferocious glare before shifting back to Sintoku with a cheerful smile.

Sintoku tapped his chin in thought. "I did hear that a lot of rookies were participating this time around."

"You're not a rookie?" Kushina responded.

Sintoki smiled, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "No, this would be my third time."

Third time? "Is it really that hard?"

"You wouldn't believe," he responded, "There are some strong people participating…Especially this time around."

"W-wow," Kushina said trying to fill the void, not knowing what else to add.

Sintoki smiled, "I can help you if you want. Give you some helpful tips, information on other participants."

"H-help me? But don't you want to win?"

Sintoki chuckled nervously again. "There are a lot of strong rookies this time around. A lot of people were planning on dropping out during the first exam. I don't think my team is fit to when this time around."

Strong rookies? Were there really people in her class strong enough to make people want to quit in the first exam? "Who are they?" Kushina asked, curiously.

"There are three rookie genin who are rumored to be genius's that only come every decade. They call them the Three Genius's. Some even say they're low-jonin level, but I think that's a bit of a stretch. There's no doubt they're strong, however."

"Do you know their names?" Low Jonin level? Were there really people in her class who were _that_ strong.

"I only know of two of them. One of them is an outcast of the mysterious Akimichi clan themselves. They say he possesses a dangerous jutsu that even the clan elders are afraid of. Another is a prodigy of the prestigious Uchiha Clan, mastering his sharingan at 10 years of age. "

"What about the third one?"

"Unfortunately that's all the information I have on the Genius's. The last one is still a mystery."

Sintoki stood up from his stool, smiling, as he offered his hand again. "Well," he started, "I just wanted to meet my fellow participant, I have to meet up with my team shortly. But I hope we can help each other out."

Kushina took his hand, blushing. "Y-yeah, sure."

As he reached the exit, he turned his head with a smile, "Oh, and I like your hair by the way. It looks cute," and then he left.

Kushina was in wide-eyed shock.

Did he just…

* * *

With a lazy smile, Sakumo Hatake walked awkwardly into the hokage's office.

"Saw your message, Hokage-sama," he chuckled nervously, "Came as soon as I could."

The Sandaime wasn't buying it. He sighed, "You're 2 hours late."

"Oh, um…about that, I was…"

"Save the excuses," he interrupted, "We have a mission for you, A-Ranked."

Sakumo's eyes widened, "Already? I kinda wanted to see how my students will do in the Chuunin Exams."

"I understand," the hokage responded, "But this is urgent."

* * *

A/N: I'm back! Things are finally starting to move forward, I can't wait to write the war battles I have planned xD


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